Smoke in the Wind
by Alva.da.saint
Summary: The tale of a boy drifting through life just trying to avoid dismemberment via the cool summer breeze.
1. Prologue

Near the exit of a cave leading deep into the earth, a soft breeze blew, just barely entering the rocky crevice, grazing by the ears of a young teen in rags clutching a newborn in a thick swaddle. Small wisps of smoke almost escaping the cocoon. She tensed at the cool feeling of air brushing by her. The girl gazed wistfully back through the cave entrance to the outside, the sunlight warming her face, "Tsk…," and she turned back to the dark, stumbling back to what her family called home.

* * *

Her bare feet instinctually tiptoed across the mildly damp rocks beneath, her calloused feet long since hardened to adapt to the rough terrain. A steady drip of water fell at the sides of the cave splashing on the stalagmites below, reverberating throughout the cavern. The wrapped infant shifted in her grasp at the noise, reaching for the echoing trickle.

The teen gave a toothy grin down at the baby, lifting him to view the growing pillars, their pale blue hues illuminated by what little sunlight could reach it, "See this?" She placed her hand under the drip, catching a few drops in the palm of her hand, "It's what makes up our cave. Outside of the greys and browns, this is what we have. Pretty isn't it?"

He blinked at her hand, tilting his head as he poked at the mound of mineral, his stubby little fingers feeling the unusually smooth sediment. A small smile came to his face as he cooed. The teen smiled down at his antics, sighing contentedly, "Adorable…"

She shook her head free from her thoughts, she had to get the child back home safe, otherwise, her sister would make her rue the day she was born. Thinking of the possible consequences, she shuddered, pulling his hand away, "Come on bud," She started off deeper into the tunnels, "We have to go."

The soft pit-pat of her feet tore through the silence once more. The soft orange light of fire peeked around the glistening stone walls, her surroundings losing their slickness, becoming dry and grainy against the soles of her feet. Voices emanated from a makeshift doorway to her right, their declarations only becoming more belligerent and confrontational as she neared.

A harsh crashing noise reverberated through the hall, causing the bundle in her arms to whimper, "What else would you have me do then? All other choices have been exhausted, farming is practically impossible down here, and trade with _anyone_ is non-existent!" Silence followed, no one else daring to speak.

She shied away from the opening, opting to quickly walk past. As she passed, a snort tore through the quiet, disgust ingrained into the offending sound, "And then there's _that_ child… why do we keep-," the girl broke into a jog, tuning the hurtful comments out. The dormitories came into sight, only one still bright with candlelight.

Peeking into the room, her sister met her gaze while seated on the bed, arms and legs crossed, "Jakun…"

Jakun recoiled, holding out the baby, "A-ah, Hakai, you're still up? Of course, you're still up, here's Ton'neru. Safe and sound just like I promised!"

Her older sister transformed into a soft cloud of pale grey smoke, floating past her while taking Ton'neru out of her grasp, and with a soft thud she landed back on her bed, "I gave you an entire hour," She clutched close, and she leered at her sister, "And you were gone for _three?_ "

Scuttling around the edge of the room as far from Hakai as possible, Jakun crawled onto her bed, attempting to look as innocent as possible, "I just wanted to show him around; he hasn't had a chance to explore!" She glanced to away, mumbling to herself, "Even if there isn't much _to_ explore…"

Hakai sighed, placing Ton'neru down onto the bed, a melancholy look set in her eyes. She got up and walked over to her younger sibling, "Come on Jakun…," She sat down next to her, rubbing her back comfortingly, "It's not as bad as you think."

Jakun shot a sharp look at her sister, her clenched fists morphing into smoke, "But it _is_. We've lived down here our whole lives! We're just-!" Hakai covered her mouth, harshly whispering, "You want to wake everyone in the cavern?"

She turned away, leering at the bed, "No…," She sat up, "I'm just, I don't know, frustrated I guess."

"I know it's restrictive, but this is how we must live Jakun," Hakai stated.

Jakun jumped up, whirling towards her sister, "But why? Why don't we just fucking try to fix the damn problem?!"

Narrowing her eyes, Hakai put her hands on her hips, "Language young lady," Her eyes softened, "However, to answer your question, it's simply to dangerous. We don't have the resources nor the numbers to attempt a cure for our affliction. It's unfortunate, but it is necessary." It was true, there weren't many options besides the caves. An uncertain fate under the sun was the alternative. Not too appealing.

She huffed, hugging her knees to her chest. The room became quiet. Hakai let out a sigh, floating over to her side of the room, caressing Ton'neru's cheek as she went by, "Goodnight Jakun."

Jakun rolled her eyes.

* * *

The cavern was left dark, the entirety of the secluded clan asleep in their rooms, more peaceful than ever before. All except for the Meeting room, where a verbal war was transpiring in hushed tones.

A stalwart man with tan skin, muddy brown hair, and a pencil mustache massaged his temples as the other occupants of the tables bickered and argued.

"We have enough supplies to keep us alive and kicking for another three months _at best_. And our last venture into agriculture wasn't exactly the most successful project we've had down here, so why don't we try hunting around the cave entrance Gotta?" A younger member of the group asked.

Gotta rubbed his face, elbows set on the rock table, "We already do that, and the animals that live around us are growing more and more scarce as we hunt. It would only shorten the already small amount of time we have left." Sadly, it would cause what remained of the animals around them to migrate away from them, making it more dangerous.

An older man stood up and smacked his wrinkled hands on the stone, "The answer is right in front of us Gotta! Surely you see that! All we have to do is send out gather-."

" **No.** "

A harsh silence overtook their 'council'. The man stared for a moment before taking his seat once more, crossing his arms and glaring at their de facto leader, "You know it is our only option, at least if we wish to remain standing, and not dead or emaciated." An older lady added on to his statement, "We've done it in the past with great success, we were supplied for years!"

He leered at them, his eyes darkening, "But at what cost? Before then we were over two hundred strong. But now?" His fists clenched unconsciously, the table cracking around his hands while smoke rose from his seat, "Now including us, we have less than a hundred."

The council members seemed to shrink as they glanced to each other nervously, some straight-faced and rigid while others were small and melancholy. A cough cut through the silence.

"Although that may be true, what else is there to attempt?" An elder questioned.

Gotta grimaced, grinding his teeth together he ran a hand through his short spiky hair, "I'll-I'll think of something. Something _safer_ ," He shook his head, calming himself, "And less expensive." Sending gatherers was a wildly successful way of bringing in food and other necessities as they hitched on to passing merchant groups and travelers, but the already minuscule stockpile of supplies they had would be all but empty after they sent them out. No wool or stolen jackets, almost no bandages for wounds, and even less sustenance as it would all be sent out in one risky bid for survival.

Another group seemed to perk up at his uncertainty, an older woman at the head of them, "If it _is_ our only option remaining, then why don't we capitalize and excise the impure from the fold as well?"

Immediately, Gotta stood up, his calm demeanor long gone, "We are not sending out an _infant_. I will not stand for neonatal murder, nor sending out anyone as _punishment_." He snarled. The woman glowered at him, her lips stretched thin across her wrinkled face.

"After the stunt that whore pulled it is a wonder you allowed her to return, with child even! I demand we send her and her half-blooded spawn out to be torn to pieces!" A wave of raucous support came from her side of the table, Gotta's side remaining silent. She had smug grin etched into her ancient features. Gotta cocked his head up to the ceiling, taking a deep breath with his nose scrunched in thought. The woman had the support of the majority of the committee, and he knew they were steadfast in their beliefs, no matter how archaic they were. Deliberating in his mind, he ran through the different possible endings, routes to sway the vote in his favor. His form freezing, he came to one awful solution to the issue at hand. One that he was confident would work for the benefit of the clan.

But…

He would never be able to forgive himself. A small price to pay for the clan.

He brought his chin down and exhaled, setting his gaze to the pro-gatherers side. "I have a compromise for you all."

The table grew silent as Gotta stated his offer, a series of nods and affirmative grunts echoed in the room. Everyone stood, going back to their rooms, meanwhile, Gotta stared down at his hands, a remorseful glint in his eyes.

Light crept into the sister shared room from a single torch, rousing Ton'neru and Jakun from their slumber. Gotta let himself inside past the curtain of dark in the hallway, his face older then it was in the morning. Jakun overheard him waking Hakai while Ton'neru cooed in his crib, shifting around.

"Hakai…I'm so sorry." He whispered.

She brought herself up to a sitting position, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, "What is-," she yawned, "is the matter, Gotta? Why the apologies, especially at an hour such as this."

The man's shoulders slumped as if a weight was placed on them. He steeled his face, "As now, you and your child are to leave the cave." Jakun tensed, her heartbeat skyrocketing as she sat up, staring wide-eyed at Gotta.

Hakai shriveled back, giving a nervous laugh as she pulled Ton'neru closer, "A pitiful attempt at a joke, but I suppose we all get our kicks one way or another." She closed her eyes, satisfied with her response. However, after a period of silence, she peeked an eye open, looking at Gotta, "Gotta?" He kept his gaze on the wall, refusing to look at her.

"We will supply you with two jackets as well as food and water for three days, if you aren't gone in a few hours, then I cannot guarantee you, nor Ton'neru safety down here."

She bristled, a bead of sweat making its way down her chin, "Gotta, you-you can't possibly be serious! You understand what will end up happening don't you?" He still bored holes in the wall with his eyes. He swallowed, "I wish you luck Hakai." He turned to leave.

Hakai jumped at him, her legs partially morphing as well, " _NO! GOTTA YOU BASTARD!"_ But, he held her back, pleading with her, "Please calm down…"

She stood there, her face working through emotion after emotion, a blank veil of confusion being overtaken by white-hot anger. In the end, however, she deflated a grim resignation all that was left as she cast her eyes to Ton'neru in his crib, slightly disgruntled and grabbing at the air.

Jakun dragged herself out of bed in a fervent haze of anger, stomping towards the man, "What gives ya the right to-!" A single glance silenced her, Hakai's silver eyes wet with tears.

Her fury subsided as she shared a look with her older sister, clutching the rough fabric of her blanket to her chest. She leered at Gotta, "B-bring another coat." Although she tried to hide it, her stuttering belied her fear, as did the shaking of her legs.

Hakai shook her head, placing her hands on Jakun's shoulders, "It's much better for you here Jakun, you can't just-," But she was cut off as Jakun pulled away from her sister's touch, glaring at her with teeth bared, "I'm not staying here without ya!"

Hakai took in a shaky breath, steeling herself, "The caves are much safer, you would just be throwing your life away."

"Ya think I stay here because it's safe?!" She pointed a finger in her face, tears streaming down her cheeks. Hakai blinked, taken aback by the outburst.

"I would've run away _years_ ago if ya weren't here, hell, I almost did when ya," Her voice became a harsh whisper, "When ya left me…" Hakai felt a familiar guilt gnaw at her chest at her sister's dismay. She reached out unsurely, pulling her into a hug as Gotta slinked away, his face twisted in shame.

"We're going to be fine Jakun. Absolutely fine…" But even she knew that she was trying to convince herself.

* * *

 **A/N:** Okay, so this is my attempt at adding more detail and depth to this story's beginning. Cut out a few extraneous things, added some more relevant stuff, the whole shebang. Feel free to leave a review about any criticism you might have. Hopefully, you enjoyed the chapter, and I hope I see you in the next one.


	2. Chapter 1

~7 years later~ First Person POV

* * *

Staring into the mirror, I took in my raggedy bed headed self, my steel grey eyes dull as usual, my short ash brown hair, and my near perpetual look of disinterest, "Eh." I turned away and surveyed the room, my new room for the time being.

"Ton'neru! Do you have your wrappings on?! You need to get ready for the academy!"

I sighed, "Not yet Jak-Jak!"

I walked over to my 'closet', if you could call it that, it was just the corner of the room.

Mumbling came from outside my door, "I'm your aunt! At least call me Jakun if you aren't gonna call me that!"

A smile crept onto my face, "Of course Jak-Jak!"

 _THUMP_

I recoiled shaking a bit, "My bad!"

I could hear her mumbling again, but she stalked off to waiting in the living room of our small flat. Letting out a breath I reached into the pile of clothes and pulled out some gauze under a heavy jacket and began the tedious task of covering my body head to toe.

* * *

~15 minutes later~

The sound of me biting though the last bit of wrapping was the only noise in the room. I grabbed my heavy brown jacket and normal black pants, throwing them on. I started off out of my room.

"Well there you are ya little mummy."

I deadpanned at her almost equally mummified form, although she had her face free from the gauze, while I only had my eyes uncovered, "We're almost the same height and I'm eight."

She froze, "Shut it Ton'neru."

I shrugged, "When do we leave for my future?"

She sighed, closing her eyes, "We're leaving in a few hours so ya have some time to explore our new home."

I nodded and made my way to the door.

"Stay safe and make sure to check on the weather before you go."

Nodding again I looked out the window.

Clear skies and no strong breezes, perfect.

"Well I'll be back in about an hour, is that alright?"

Her eyes narrowed, "Not 'til ya finish your breakfast young man."

I turned back to her with a disappointed look, "Really?"

She stared at me with a frustrated look, and I stared back trying to look as pitiful as possible, a battle of wills between nephew and aunt.

She huffed, "Fine, but only an hour."

I smiled, I had won.

"Alright, I'll see you then Jak-Jak."

The sound of a spoon smacking the wall behind me was all I heard as I made my way outside.

* * *

I strolled down the streets of Konohagakure, getting the typical looks you'd expect from people seeing an eight-year-old mummy with heavy clothes on in the heat, but outside of that, everything felt like any other place we've settled down at. Not that I was complaining, at least I had something to do now.

The chatter of the streets was annoying, but the village was pretty, and definitely lively, so I'd say it was worth the trip.

"HEY! MUMMY KID!"

How polite.

I turned to the voice, "Yes?"

It was a girl around my age with violet hair and dark mesh clothing. Who let someone so young wear that?

"Why're you all wrapped up?!"

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, "It's-."

She stepped closer with curiosity in her eyes, "Are you a burn victim?"

I stared.

"Is that a yes mummy kid?

I deadpanned, "Are you a child prostitute?"

She immediately narrowed her eyes and bared her teeth, "HEY! What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you shouldn't assume people are what they look like,"

I sidestepped a punch, "Ok, maybe I was a liiiiiiittle bit rude."

She pounced at me with her fists at the ready and I rolled to the side starting back throughout the streets and around multiple stunned onlookers towards my home.

"GET BACK HERE YOU DICK!"

Wow, I sorta screwed this right off the bat huh?

"STOP CHASING ME! I'M NOT INTERESTED IN YOUR SERVICES!"

She screamed and sped up.

Shit.

I turned a corner, turned into smoke in my wrappings and clothes and rose up to the roof of a nearby store, just before the purple prostitute ran around the corner.

"WHERE THE DID THAT BASTARD GO!"

I sat back on my hands and let out a few breaths, she didn't know I was up here.

Getting into a crouching position I made my way to the other side of the rooftop to drop down from the roof when I saw another figure up there with me, a ninja in a military police uniform staring at me with arms crossed. He was a young man with dark brown hair, onyx eyes and prominent lower lips.

I shifted in place, "Hi, could you possibly help me down from here?"  
He continued staring at me, but nodded, and started towards me, and in a gravelly voice asked, "Where do you live?"

I relaxed, "I live at the flats in the southern district at number 37 sir."

He nodded once more and put his hand on my shoulder. I looked up to the man, "So, how are we-, "but to my dismay, I was thrown over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"Hey what're you-," and once again I was cut off by the sickening sensation of going from stationary to sub-sonic levels of speed in less than a second.

He put me down in front of my door where I proudly and with dignity threw up all over the ground.

I looked back up from my hands and knees, but the man was already gone.

"Hck..Asshole…"

I looked back to our little rundown flat and noticed the door open with a frustrated Jakun glaring down at me.

I sighed, "Guess it's time for class."

* * *

I tightened the gauze around me as I looked to the academy, "Might as well get this over with."

Walking over to the main doors I noticed a tired looking kid with medium length brown hair covered by a bandana. He wore a semi-long blue shawl, and standard black pants with sandals.

He was standing at the doorway in deep thought. Might as well try to make friends while I'm here.

"Hey," he turned to me, My names Ton'neru Iburi, what's your name?"

He seemed to be slow on his reaction because he just stared for a few seconds before shaking his head, "Ah, sorry, My name is Hayate Gekkō, it's nice to meet you."

I offered him a smile which he reciprocated, "What class were you assigned to?"

He shrugged.

I hadn't been told either, good. "Come on, lets head inside."

He shrugged again and motioned for me to take the lead, and so I did.

As we walked in behind all the other ninjas to be, we noticed that chunin instructors were in front of every class room with a list of names.

We let out a shared sigh, this was going to be annoying.

* * *

After going through each line, we finally found our class, which luckily, we shared. As we filed in with the rest of the students, no one really caught my eye, but what did was the desk with three seats free near the window. I tapped Hayate's shoulder while pointing to the seats, "Hey."

He turned to me and looked over to the seats nodding.

We walked over to the desk, him taking the seat closest to the window and me taking the middle seat.

Everything was going as expected, kids coming in and talking, kids already sitting and talking, and a few that were just sitting in the corners as far from everyone else as possible.

Good, and going as planned, maybe this year won't be too bad.

"WAIT! I'm not late right?!"

And the purple prostitute ran in to the room panting.

Well shit.

I slowly raised my hood and put my head to the table, confusing Hayate, "Ton?"

"Shhhh."

I felt him shift back to looking out the window. I silently thanked him.

Since the teacher wasn't here yet, some kid from the front row responded, "Nope, you're on time."

I heard her sigh and that's when I felt a pang of fear, she had to choose a seat, and there weren't many left in the room when we got here, not many except for the seat next to me.

Come on world, kami, whatever the fuck, just give me this, just this one thing and I won't ask-

"Oh hey, why're you sleeping so early in the day?"

Fuck you kami, and your mother.

I slowly rose and kept staring forward, "I just, uhh, didn't get that much sleep last night."

"Hmm, you sound familiar, mind taking down your hood?"

I looked to my right at Hayate pleadingly, but he was busy people watching at the window.

I take back my silent thanks ya lazy traitor.

All the sudden my hood was pulled back.

"It's you! I'm gonna beat the ever loving-."

The door slid open again, and a cold aura filled the room, cutting purple off and making Hayate freeze in place, staring back at the epicenter of it.

A small lady with horn rimmed glasses.

"Hello class, if you could all quiet down then we could get to the introductions, and you all might actually learn what I just used."

Everyone sat down and shut up, probably the smartest move.

The short lady with auburn hair stood at the forefront of the class, "Now, would someone please volunteer to introduce themselves first."

Shaking off the symptoms of the odd aura, PP, purple prostitute, stood up.

"Y-yeah, I'm Anko Mitarashi and I'm gonna become a great kunoichi!"

The teacher didn't even move at her loud introduction, "that's amazingly unoriginal, next."

The newly dubbed Anko glared with a snarl on her face at our new teacher, but still sat down. How nice, she's angry now.

"You, mummy kid, introduce yourself."

Every time, it's mummy kid, can these people be any more creative?

I stood, "My name is Ton'neru Iburi, feel free to talk to me if you want, and please don't call me mummy kid."

The teacher just stared, and then went on to the other students.

After the final ninja aspirant finished their cookie cutter introductions, the teacher went back behind her desk and looked out to us.

"My name is Meinu, but you all will address me with Teacher, or ma'am, is that understood?"

A chorus of yes's and affirmatives filled the classroom.

She turned to look at the board, "Now, we'll start off with the basics of chakra theory."

* * *

"Now, before everyone leaves, I'm going to show you a chakra control exercise to practice at home."

Meinu proceeded to pull a leaf out of her desk, sticking it to her forehead, "You achieve this via running chakra through the point of contact and leaf to stick the leaf as I am doing now."

Some of the students seemed shocked at the exercise, but I had seen this and much more on our travels before we reached Konoha. It seemed multiple other kids also seemed to already know the exercise.

"As homework you guys are to practice this exercise until you can sustain it for at least 3 minutes."

With that final order, class was dismissed, and I stood to leave, "No you don't mummy, we're gonna talk."

I turned to Anko exasperatedly, "Look, I'm sorry for insulting you, but after you hear the same misconceptions for a few years it gets frustrating."

She seemed taken aback by my apology, "Oh, well, uhh," She shuffled in place uncomfortably, "That doesn't change the fact that you thought I was a prostitute!"

I deadpanned, "You thought I was a burn victim, and actually asked me."

She recoiled, "Uhhh, well you…," She looked at me and our surroundings as if trying to find a reason to be mad, finally, she just gave up, looking defeated, "Fine, I guess I'm sorry too."

I nodded, "Apology accepted, now," I weighed my options and decided that she'd be better as a friend than an acquaintance, "I know we didn't meet on the best terms, but how about we clean the slate and start over?"

Once again, a look of confusion adorned her features, "Aaaalright," She stuck out her hand, "My name is Anko, it's nice to meet you."

I took her hand, "Likewise, my name is Ton'neru, I look forward to our time in the academy."

And all the while Hayate stared at us in total, and utter confusion.

* * *

 **A/N:** Alrighty then, this chapter was annoying just because of the extensive research I had to do to find the time period all of this so far could have taken place, what characters would canonically be the age they were, and all that _fun_ stuff. Also, the characterization to me felt weak, but then again, they are 8 year olds, but any feedback on how the characters acted and grammar would be appreciated, anyway, I'll hopefully see ya next chapter, and I hope ya enjoyed.


	3. Chapter 2

The sound of countless children running to their designated sparring circles filled my head as I viewed them from the very back of the class. I had a sneaking suspicion that I was going to get my ass handed to me today, very slight, but still worrying, especially because I'm fairly sure Anko still wants to vent from last week. I looked over to her, and she was staring back with manic glee.

Wonderful.

"Ton'neru!" Your opponent shall be Anko! Please proceed to the ring!"

I drooped my arms, defeated already, "Might as well get this over with."

Anko of course sprinted full speed into the ring, happier than I've ever seen her before, I however did a slow jog to prolong the inevitable.

"C'mon Ton! Hurry your mummy ass up!"

I scowled beneath my wrappings.

Finally, in the ring, I looked across to my opponent, and apparent friend, and just asked myself, why? Mainly to my past self for goading her, but still.

The referee, a chubby Akimichi chunin, yelled, "Perform the Seal of Confrontation!"

We both brought up our hand into the seal, although mine was rather halfhearted.

"Are you ready to get pummeled again Ton?"

I only stared with narrowed eyes, if I was going to fight, I might as well go down swinging.

We both got into out respective stances, mine an unrefined academy stance and hers some style she got from somewhere I don't know about, probably some teacher I don't know about.

"Begin!"

She immediately pounced at me, not to different to the first time she assaulted me. I dodged to the side and ducked, anticipating a high spinning heel kick as she typically did in our previous spars, but I got blind sided by knee directly to the face that threw me back towards the edge of the ring, but I just managed to stay on my feet.

Looking back up to Anko she had a smirk on her face as I stood back up fully, I rushed her whilst pulling my right fist back ever so slightly, telegraphing as subtly as possible. She jumped at me, sliding underneath my right fist, but running directly into knee, disorienting her. While she was off balance I stuck my foot behind her left heel and spun my upper body around into an elbow, which she slipped but ended up tripping over my foot.

I smirked back at her as she fell, I finally got one up on her! However, my moment of triumph was cut short by her grabbing my arm and twisting around mid-air throwing me over her to the ground, effectively using the momentum of her fall to down me.

I let out a gasp as the air was knocked out of me and found her looking down at me with her fist raised and my jacket grasped in her other hand.

 _Well that went by fast._

I took in some air, breathing heavily, "I, heuuph, I concede."

She was breathing heavily, but smirked and let go of me while standing back up, offering me a hand up. I obliged, gripping her forearm and pulling myself up.

"Anko Mitarashi is the victor! Perform the seal of reconciliation!"

We gripped our fingers together in the seal, "Good match Anko."

She grinned, "Yeah, yeah, Good match, when did you improve so much?"

I shrugged, "I just practiced and payed attention during our spars."

She nodded, "Makes sense."

Hayate waked up to us, "Good spar guys."

I smiled, "Thanks man."

Anko followed my lead and just thanked him much like I did.

We were about to start talking again when the sparring instructor yelled, "Everyone! Sparring has concluded for today, everyone go back to your assigned classroom!"

I glanced at the clock, "Tsk."

* * *

The teacher had left to get something for our lesson, so we, as well as the majority of the class were all talking.

"So," Anko started, her head propped up on her arm, "What do you guys do at home?"

Hayate merely shrugged, "I usually train my kenjutsu with my parents or I sometimes go cloud watching."

Anko deadpanned, "Sounds boring," She turned to me, "How about you Ton?"

I looked up to the ceiling and thought about it for a moment, "I usually read in my room or I help clean the flat with my aunt, I also sometimes do that leaf exercise, but at this point I have to use about five leaves before I even notice a change, so pretty much nothing."

She threw her head back, "AUUGH, you guys are so bland, why don't you pick up any worthwhile hobbies?"

Hayate had the dignity to look mildly frustrated, while I didn't even react.

"Hey! Kenjutsu is a worthwhile hobby! What do you do at home anyway?"

Anko grinned, "I'm glad you asked! I practice my taijutsu, I eat dango, I run around the village looking for fun things to do-."

I cut in, "and you go up to burn victims, asking them how they got their scars."

Anko blanched, stomping her foot, "That's a total lie Ton, and you know it!"

She looked over to the insulted swordsman in training, "He _is_ lying Hayate. It's probably to draw attention away from his wrappings, I think he's sensitive."

I frowned, "Well now that's just insulting."

She turned to me, "I stand by what I said, your boring and sensitive."

I sighed, "First of all, I'm definitely not sensitive, and second, nothing interests me enough to cultivate it," and under my breath I added, "And usually we move before I have a chance to."

She puffed up her cheeks, putting her hands on her hips. I aggressively ignored her.

Hayate tried to play peacekeeper, "C'mon guys, Ton doesn't need some extremely special hobby to be unique."

I smiled, "Thanks Hayate.

Anko let out her breath, "Fine, onto other things, what's taking Meinu so long with our lesson?"

 _WHUMP_

The door slammed open, and Meinu walked in dragging a man wearing…green..spandex?

The man looked like he had given up fighting her hold.

Meinu turned to the class with the man's ear still in her grip, "Now class, this is Might Duy, he has so graciously volunteered to assist me with a demonstration on genjutsu."

She relinquished the man his ear and he immediately jumped back a few feet and shook his head before looking up with a blinding smile and a thumbs up, "HELLO YOUTHFUL NINJA IN TRAINING! I AM HERE TO HELP!"

I along with the rest of the class winced at his volume, Anko plugging her ears with her hands. I leaned over to her and Hayate, "We were already told that…"

Anko didn't respond as she was to busy trying to block out the ringing, a futile effort, and Hayate just shrugged.

Meinu sneered at the man, "Please refrain from being that loud again," The aura from our first day returned in full force, which we learned was known as Killing Intent, began to fill the room, "Especially in my classroom."

He kept the pose and smile but started shaking, "O-o-of course Meinu."

The killing intent receded and Meinu actually smiled, although it looked more sadistic than anything else, "Now, as I taught you before, Killing Intent is the aura you just felt, however, it is also known as the first and most basic form of genjutsu."

A kid from one of the upper rows raised their hand, "What is genjutsu ma'am?"

Meinu turned to Duy and performed hand seals I couldn't see, leaves appeared and flew around the man's body, and, well…

"Where did the students go? Lady Meinu, your youths have disappeared!"

I tilted my head to the side confused as the man observed his surroundings.

"OH! I see Meinu, this is part of the genjutsu huh? Well it's not any-."

He turned to the left as if he heard some noise, "W-what? No…That's not me! IT'S NOT, I AM MUCH MORE YOUTHFUL!"

He flailed about and fell to the floor crawling backwards 'til he hit the wall. Meinu, still holding that grin from before stared down at the man, "Release."

Duy while hyperventilating looked around flabbergasted, "W-was, was that apart of the jutsu?"

She only nodded.

"O-oh…"

He stood up, albeit shakily and stumbled his way out of the classroom, with only his ignity and the manic look in his eyes.

 _What the hell?_

Meinu lost her grin, thankfully, and turned back to us, "That, was a genjutsu, more specifically that technique was called the Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing technique, which tricks the victim into seeing their worst nightmare come to life."

She walked to the open door Duy left, closing it, "To give you a more concrete answer, genjutsu is a technique used by ninja to fool their opponent's senses with the application of chakra."

Hayate didn't look interested at all, and Anko only scoffed, mumbling about how ninjutsu was better.

I, however found it… intriguing.

"Now, the use of genjutsu does require precise chakra control, so if this is something your interested in, than practice is highly recommended," She went and sat at her desk, "Because You have all gotten a brief overlook of the three main tools used by ninja, we will be moving on to general studies."

Everyone groaned in unison.

* * *

The three of us were walking out of the academy after our runs, "I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Hayate was confused, "Are you in a rush for something Ton?"

I looked up to the sky, specifically at the darker clouds.

"Not really, my aunt wanted to do dinner early today," The lie rolled off my tounge easy.

He nodded, accepting my excuse.

Anko shrugged, "See you Ton."

I waved and started off towards our flat, jogging my way through the streets. I felt the telltale signs of an unwanted transformation.

 _Ah shit._

I ran/floated off into an alley, looking every which way for something to hide in.

Nothing.

 _FUCK!_

I floated my form out of the alley and flew as quickly as humanly possible; I could feel the rain falling onto my form.

 _Oh, Come ON! Of course, it has to be the day I find out about_ _ **something**_ _actually worth spending time on, FUCK._

I decided to just try to reach my home, my jacket had fallen off, so I was even at greater risk now.

 _KAMI, ya fucking sadist! Is this what we're doing now! Screwing me over before I can even try to live! YOU BASTARD!_

The wind picked up, becoming audible, I could feel it rushing around me now. I looked all around until I finally spotted it, I could see the flat, the thirty-seven adorning the door practically called out to me, and the window was open! I might make it!

Throwing myself through the window I felt some of my wrappings tear as I fell to the floor, returning to my normal form.

Breathing heavily, I leaned back on my hands, reveling in the feeling of the hard wood floor on my palms.

"Holy shit," I stood up although shaking and closed the window.

Turning around I saw Jakun standing in the kitchen with wide eyes, "Are, are, you alright Ton'neru?"

I took a deep breath, and looked up, "Yeah," I let out the breath, "I'm fine."

"I'm just going to," I looked around, "Just going to go to my room."

She nodded, although still staring at me.

I stumbled towards the hallway leading to my room, taking a second to glance at the small bonsai tree next to the kitchen, "Tsk."

* * *

The next day I woke up floating above my bed, ' _Really?'_

I reformed myself and started my day.

Getting ready for the day, brushing my teeth, showering, re-wrapping myself, grabbing a new jacket and doing a quick chakra exercise by sticking my hand to the wall and pulling took me about fifteen minutes to finish. I looked out the window.

 _I woke up pretty early huh?_

The sun still hadn't come over the horizon, and I was unlucky enough to be conscious.

 _Might as well make the most of it._

Dragging myself out the door, I made sure I was wrapped tight and made my way out the door. The first thing I noticed was how much quieter it was now, I mean, I expected it, but experiencing the sound of silence first hand was nice, especially after how hectic the previous days had been, not even mentioning our trip.

Starting my stroll off, I noticed a few frugal inhabitants who had woken up early was well, but I paid them no heed. Continuing my walk at a faster pace, I caught sight of my destination.

The library.

I walked into the building, going right up to the elderly man behind the counter.

"Hello," I offered the man a smile.

He ignored me.

I cleared my throat, "Hello?"

The man turned to me with tired eyes, "Yes?"

"Do I need a card to check out any books?"

The man shook his head, "Everything is public except for the restricted section, only those of chunin rank and above can access it."

I nodded to the man, 'Thank you sir."

I walked off into the rows of books, "D..E…F..There we go, G."

 _I should probably stop mumbling to myself….eh, for another time._

Surveying the shelfs I found a plethora of books I couldn't care less about, like, ' _Getting fit in 10 easy steps!'_ and _, 'Gonorrhea? It's more likely than you think,"_ until I got to what I was looking for, ' _Genjutsu for aspiring ninja._ '

 _Perfect._

I strolled out of the aisle with a satisfied grin on face, but then I paused.

 _It'd probably be best if I looked for a bit more material._

I found myself aimlessly wondering about the library, going from section to section, combing my way through the informative works and novellas. I spent so much time searching that the sun had finally reached its place high in the sky.

I sighed, "I should probably make my way back home."

Even though I had spent so long looking for anything else, I had only found one extra book on the five nature transformations.

"Hello again."

The man turned to me with the same tired look, makes me feel for the guy.

I slid the books over the counter to him, "Could I check these two out please?"

He only nodded, grabbing the books and stamping a slip of paper, "Please sign here."

I obliged and bid him farewell.

Looking to the clear sky I took a deep breath.

 _Man, I'm lucky that today's not a week day._

I froze.

 _Wait…_

I ran back into the library as fast as my legs would carry me, "Sir, sorry to bother you, but what day is today?"

He didn't look up, "It's Friday young man."

I stared past him through the wall behind him, and I felt my legs start to transform out of nervousness.

Without a word I turned heel and literally flew directly back home to drop off my books.

* * *

I looked at the door in front of me with trepidation, wondering if I should just go home and claim I was sick.

 _No, I'm better than that, but damn if this isn't going to suck._

The slid the door open with a stone face.

Meinu was in the middle of a lesson, however, with my entrance, everyone's heads turned to me.

"Terribly sorry ma'am, I overslept."

Meinu stared through me for a while, scrutinizing every detail not covered by my gauze.

She gestured with her hand to get to my seat, "Anko, as you sit closest to Ton'neru here, you will be getting him up to date, is that understood?"

I let out a breath in my head, _Thank whatever deity…_

"However, Ton'neru, you will be doing twice the laps everyone else does after class."

 _Nevermind._

I physically wilted, "Y-yes ma'am."

As I sat down at my seat, Hayate and Anko looked at me questioningly, "I got carried away in the library alright," I whispered.

They looked at me condescendingly, I stared back at them with slightly narrowed eyes.

I sighed, "Oooff of that, what are we learning now anyway?"

Anko immediately deflated while Hayate's eyes dropped, "The history of the Daimyos."

My forehead made friends with the table soon after.

* * *

 **A/N:** I'm trying to increase the length of my chapters without too much of a detriment, once again, please let me know if you noticed any grammatical issues or characterization issues, or any issues with the story outside of plot. I'm still trying to build Ton'neru up to be an actual human being with motivations and personality, so he may feel bland for a bit, which I do apologize for. Hopefully I'll see you next chapter, and I hope you enjoyed.


	4. Chapter 3

Sitting at the dinner table, I opened up the book on genjutsu, ' _The basis of genjutsu is to alter the five senses of the recipient of the technique via altering the way their chakra flows through their cerebral nervous system. This, as is typically taught in academies, takes very precise chakra control to achieve, however the base concept is easy enough to understand, you use your own chakra as a medium to alter the flow of chakra in your opponent by weaving your chakra into the victim. This is where the precise chakra control comes into play, as you can't just throw your chakra at the recipient and hope it affects them, you must essentially sneak your chakra into their system without them noticing as they could then simply disrupt your attempt, nullifying all your efforts. This is why-."_

"Ton'neru Iburi! What have I told you about reading at the dinner table?"

I looked up to a frustrated Jakun with a disinterested look, "We haven't had a dinner table before."

She puffed up her cheeks, "You little shit..."

I scoffed, "Language young lady."

The anticipated verbal lashing didn't come, and after looking closer, I noticed that Jak-Jak had a sad look on her face, looking behind me.

 _This hasn't happened before…was it something I said?_

"Are you alright Jakun?"

She shook her head and looked back to me with a small smile, "Yeah, I'm fine, just some…memories."

I sighed, looking down, "Sorry if I brought something up."

She only smiled, "No, it's fine Ton'neru, really, just caught me by surprise is all."

I smiled back, closing the book and sliding it to the side, "So, what have you been doing while I've been at the academy?"

She shrugged, "Not much, cleaned a little bit, got some groceries, and tending to the tree."

I glanced back at the bonsai tree, "Sounds fun."

She scoffed at that, "Please, I'm bored out of my mind."

I smirked at her, but didn't say anything, then all the sudden, she looked like she had an idea, 'How about I show you the technique passed down in our clan?"

My eyes widened, "Our clan has a technique specific to it?"

Now it was her turn to smirk, "It sure does, it's really the only thing we were taught back there. It's called the Body Oxidation technique!"

She had my full attention now, "What does it do?"

 _I don't like the look on her face…_

"Well, I could tell you, but would that really be fun?"

I didn't miss a beat, "Yes."

She laughed, "Well not for me it wouldn't, so how about this, bring a girl to the house in the three hours and I'll teach it to you,"

Don't know why she wanted that, but her grin, that shit eating grin. I couldn't wait to wipe it off, although I kept a stone face, "Done."

She kept the smirk on her face, "Of course, your timer starts now."

* * *

Walking through the streets I wondered where Anko could possibly be.

 _Now what did she say she liked? Training, dancing…she said a lot of stuff, maybe I'll check out the food areas, she said she liked dango right?_

After a little bit of searching, sure enough, I caught sight of her purple locks among the crowd, and lo and behold, she was feasting on dango, rather ravenously might I add.

 _Should…should I interfere? It looks like she might take one of my fingers off if I get involved…eh, might as well._

"Hey Anko."

She jumped and started choking on one of her dango.

"Calm down Anko, you're not working now."

She hacked up half the dango onto the ground grabbing her throat, "You," She coughed again, "You bastard…"

I tried to hold it back, but my grin broke out into laughter soon after. I just couldn't resist, I mean, it was sitting their ripe for the taking! Holy-

My thought process was cut off by a swift kick to my family jewels. A manly squeak snuck out of my mouth before I collapsed, clutching my groin.

"Bitch…," I hissed.

After dragging myself off the ground, I looked to her while wincing, "Cruel and," I winced harder as another pang of pain shot through me, "unusual punishment."

Anko only smirked.

Shortly after our, altercation, we sat down, me with pain, and her with dango.

"So, what do you need Ton?"

I looked up to her, "I need you to come to my house."

She lit up with red, "WHAT! I know you thought I was a-."

Cutting her off, I said, "Cool it Anko, that's not why I want you there, my aunt wants a girl at the house for some reason, and I stand to profit from it."

She settled down and scoffed at me, "And what would make you think I would go with you anyhow? My time is very valuable after all."

I deadpanned, "Suuure, anyway, I'll get you dango for the next three days including after the academy during the week."

"Sold."

 _Well that was easy._

"Could it wait a bit though?"

 _Even my thoughts jinx me, wonderful._

I shrugged, "We have about two and a half hours, why?"

She smiled a big toothy smile, "I wanna introduce you to my other friend!"

I tilted my head, "Ohhh, who is it?"

Anko just turned and started running away, "Just follow me!"

I stumbled out of my seat, "Hey! Wait up!"

She was weaving through the crowd as if they weren't even there, "Come on! Anko! Slow down!"

As expected she completely ignored me.

 _Bitch…_

I continued my sprint after her, just barely keeping up, I saw her cut around the corner.

 _Welp, I can keep chasing her like this…or I can risk going on the roofs again…_

I sighed.

 _Might as well._

I transformed, making sure to keep my smoke form in my clothes as to not arouse any suspicion, and half climbed half flew up the side of a building, once I was on the roof, I flew across the top of it as fast as I could manage, and then I jumped over the side of the building, slowing my descent to the ground.

Just as I landed she ran past me, looking back with a smirk.

I began my sprint after her again after shaking my head. I turned another corner and almost ran past her, but caught myself just before I did, almost tripping.

I put my hands on my knees, breathing heavily, "What," I took a deep breath, "Was that?"

Anko only panted a little and pointed to the building in front of us.

I looked up at the building, and my eyes widened.

 _Holy shit._

This building had to be the most intimidating thing I'd see during my eight short years on this earth, it was dark and had spikes coming out of the rim of the roof, sceaming could be heard from inside. I stared at the building, "Anko."

She smiled, "Yes?"

I didn't move, "Are you dragging me in there?"

She nodded, "Yup."

I hummed, "Alright, cool," and then I succinctly turned and walked away, but she grabbed me by the shoulder and spun me around, "Stop being a big scaredy cat, there's nothing to be afraid of."

I looked her in the eyes, "Is that so?"

"Absolutely!"

 _Bullshit._

"Alright, take me away then, just keep the time limit in mind."

She ignored that and grabbed my wrist, "Let's go!"

* * *

The sight held before me would have broken lesser men, I however had the mental strength to hold my face in its neutral position.

Although just barely.

"Anko."

She turned to me with a smirk, "Yes Ton?"

"What am I looking at?"

She looked back to the scene, "That's my friend Ibiki practicing with his dad."

"He's driving senbon into that man's fingernails while carving his eyelids off."

She grinned even brighter, "Yup!"

I turned to her with a tired look, "Can we please leave?"

"Sure, he'll probably take a while anyway."

 _Thank fucking kami._

* * *

Finally, we stood before my front door, "This," I pushed the door open, "Is my home."

Anko rushed past me to look inside, very polite of her.

As she was inspecting our kitchen, I walked off to Jak-Jak's room, I knocked, "Jak-Jak!"

I heard shuffling from inside before she opened the door, a look of boredom on her face, "What is it Ton'neru?"

I moved to the side, an excited Anko in my stead, "I brought a girl."

She seemed to freeze, as if she wasn't sure how to respond, or if she didn't know if she was real, so she reached out to Anko, "Poke," and poked her on the cheek.

After doing this, she seemed to realize how mentally handicapped she seemed.

"Ohhh, sorry about that, what brings ya here?"

Anko beamed, "I was promised dango!"

Jak-Jak stared at her, and then turned to me with a smirk, I wasn't having any of that, "Stop."

She chortled and turned back to Anko, "To be honest, I didn't expect him to already have a girlfriend, so you can just leave if you'd like."

Anko lit up for the second time today, while I settled for raising my brow at Jak-Jak.

"NO! We are not a thing, hell, we're eight you weirdo!"

Jak-Jak burst out laughing, "Alright, alright, I've had my fun, but seriously, you gotta go, what I'm gonna teach him is kinda family sensitive."

Anko looked frustrated but turned to leave, but not before turning to me, "See you tomorrow Ton., maybe you'll actually meet Ibiki!"

 _Kami I hope not._

I heard the front door shut and lock as she walked out, Jak-Jak smirked, "Who's Ibiki?"

I shuddered, "You don't want to know."

Jak-Jak only smiled, "Ok then, any who, are you ready to learn the Body Oxidation Technique?"

My face grew serious as I nodded.

"Alright, the techniques idea is to use your smoke form to enter your opponents' body and attack them from the inside out."

I scrunched my face up a bit.

 _Not only does that sound extremely gruesome, it also sounds uncomfortable for me as well._

She turned away from me, "All you have to do is hold the bird seal, and then push chakra out of your pores, after this your transformation should activate as usual, but unlike your normal smoke…" She trailed off as she turned into smoke and floated towards me.

 _I don't like where this is going…_

She blew past me as I took a breath in, causing me to inhale a part of the smoke, and almost immediately I noticed the smoke rapidly entering my nose and mouth, but, oddly enough, I didn't feel any different.

 _Huh, not as bad as I thought it'd be._

Jak-Jak shortly after expelled herself from my body, reforming in front of me with a smile, "Do ya think ya understand?"

I didn't respond, but I did bring up the bird sea, transforming myself into smoke, I smiled inwardly, much like Jak-Jak was now.

* * *

After I learned our clan technique, I went to my room to finish up reading the genjutsu book, _'-the mode of transportation for your chakra is so important, be it via eye contact, sound, or really anything that can have chakra pumped into it.'_

 _Not much left for chapter two huh?_

Well it seemed simple enough, all I needed now was a test subject.

"TON'NERU! GET IN HERE AND HELP ME CLEAN!"

 _Perfect._

"Of course, Jak-Jak!"

I had a smile on my face not unlike one Meinu would sport.

I stalked my way out of the room toward Jak-Jak and molded my chakra into what felt to me like a miniscule needle.

Sneaking around to the side of her, I molded my chakra needle into her system, targeting her eyes. I walked up on her right, but the illusion should have her seeing me on her left.

"Ton'neru, there you are-."

She froze.

Did I drop the ball? Where's she looking?

I went all the way around to her face and realized.

 _She's looking at the ceiling._

I sighed, "Release!"

She blinked a few times and looked around until she saw me, "You were on the ceiling."

I decided to play along, mainly because I didn't feel like explaining that I was experimenting with a possibly dangerous thing I learned at the academy.

"That I was."

She stared with wide eyes, "Is that…normal?"

I nodded, "Ninja stuff."

She nodded as well, although slower, "Mmhmm."

Sighing once more I got down there with her and got to scrubbing.

* * *

I floated up to the roof of a building nearby my destination. I surveyed the yard near the forest where my target was, practicing by himself, chopping trees almost in half.

I jumped off the roof, slowing my descent until my feet touched the ground, which immediately after, I transformed my feet into smoke as to not alert my query, all the way until I was behind the boy.

"Hey Hayate."

Hayate jumped higher than than the trees he was cutting and turned to me, "Really Ton?"

I shrugged, "Anko said it was fun so I thought I'd try it out, not my cup of tea to be honest."

Hayate sighed, "You guys'll be the death of me."

I smirked, "Then you better improve."

He rolled his eyes.

"So," I looked around at the trees, "How much ryo did the trees owe you?"

Hayate practically growled, turning to me with a cold look, "Shut it, Ton."

I was taken aback, Hayate had never gotten mad at either of us before, maybe frustrated, but not genuinely mad.

"Are you alright Hayate?"

He wilted, "Yeah, yeah, I'm just…really stressed out."

I walked over to a stump he'd made and sat down, "Alright. What's on your mind Hayate?"

He looked down and walked over to me with his sword still in hand, plopping down next to me, "Just family stuff Ton."

My brow rose, "Familial stuff huh? Like what?"

He threw his sword to the ground and put his face in his hands, "Just, my mom left for some mission a while ago, and my dad's…he's worried, he's stressed, and he's down right paranoid at this point."

I leaned back on my palms, "Well, can you do anything about it?"

He looked back to me, "What?"

I closed my eyes and looked up, "Can you do anything to fix that?"

He took his head out of his hands, settling with looking at the ground, "Not really, but that doesn-."

"Then stop worrying about it."

Hayate didn't move, "It's not that simple. Since he's stressed. He never wants to practice, and since I can't improve without someone else, then no one wins. My dad gets more stressed, I stagnate and then I worry about my mom-," He shook his head and took a deep breath, "Just, it's hard alright."

I looked at him, a blank look on my face, "So you're just going to let it get to you?"

He turned back to me and glared, "What's that supposed to mean!?"

I leaned forward, so we would be face to face, "All I'm saying is that your letting it change you. You have to adapt and overcome Hayate."

His glare softened, "Yeah, yeah, sure."

I stood up, "Well if my advice isn't going to help you, how about I fix one of your problems."

He looked up confused, "And how're you gonna do that?"

Crossing my arms, I turned to the devastated trees behind me, "I'll be your sparring partner, so you can practice your kenjutsu."

Hayate's eyes widened, "You have experience?"

I turned back to him, rubbing the back of my head, "Nope."

He stared, "Alright," He stood up, "I'll go get the wooden swords."

My eyes widened, "Oh, we're really doing this?"

He got an innocent smile on his face.

 _I don't like that, then again, I never like it when someone smiles like that._

"Don't back out now Ton, it's just a spar."

 _I stand correct. Damn._

* * *

The welts dotted across my body stung as I sat down on my bed. Hayate had gotten his practice in, I got some practice, and some mementos, but that's not important. Forgiveness is vital after all.

Leaning back, I looked out the window at the moon.

 _I'm definitely going to practice my genjutsu on him._

I smirked.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed the book on nature transformations on top of the book on genjutsu.

 _Might as well._

I snatched the book up, opening to the first page, ' _Nature transformation is as the name implies, the transformation of chakra to take on certain the properties of a certain nature, more specifically the properties of one of the five elements, Fire, water, wind, earth, and lightning._

 _Each nature transformation is strong against one of the other transformations, Fire-.'_

And we're just going to skip ahead before I die from boredom, '-,a _nother factor to nature transformation, as a part of their properties each has some secondary affects, being that fire if used correctly can alter the weather, wind and can deflect and reflect attacks, water can alter its state ever so slightly with density and viscosity, earth can manipulate the density of the user, and lightning can increase the speed of the users movements if used effectively.'_

I froze. My sporadic problem with my kekkei genkai, the one that caused my clan to essentially self exile themselves underground, having to survive on rats and cheap food from gatherers, the one that killed almost every single Iburi clan member.

 _I could fix it._

I thumbed my way through the book tirelessly for the rest of the night, a manic grin plastered on my face.

* * *

 **A/N:** The ending felt rushed to me so I might go back to alter it, also, a heads up, I'm going to be updating this story's progress each chapter as I write it on my profile.

Hopefully I'll see you next chapter, and I hope you enjoyed.


	5. Chapter 4

I spent the entire night reading into the book, specifically in the earth release section. Re-reading lines over, and over, and over again. Hours spent analyzing each and every word on the pages. Painstakingly looked over each individual syllable to make sure I understood.

 _And I can't fix it._

At least, not now, as I don't have access to chakra paper, or someone to teach me about earth release. Or experience.

Okay. I'm getting in a bit over my head with this, it's likely I'll have to wait until I'm finished with the academy to try it, but at least it's a solution.

"Ton'neru! It's time to leave for the academy!"

Dragging myself out of bed I threw a jacket on, mumbling all the way out the door, "I am so fucked."

Walking into the living room, I saw Jak-Jak sitting at the dinner table, playing with her food, y'know, like an adult.

She glanced at me her eyes widening, "Ya look terrible! Did ya sleep at all last night?"

I smacked my lips, "Mmmh."

She stared at me worried, "Are ya alright to go to class Ton'neru?"

Walking to the front door I reassured her, "It'll only be worse tomorrow if I don't go."

Jak-Jak leaned forward, "Are ya sure about that?"

I paled, "Just, just trust me on this."

She seemed unconvinced but nodded.

I shuffled outside, recoiling at the sunlight. Starting off onto my typical journey throughout Konoha's streets, at least, that's what I had planned until I saw Anko at the edge of the flats.

Sighing I walked up to her, my head hung low, "Why're you here Anko?"

She ginned at me, "Just thought you'd appreciate the company on your way to the academy! Also, to make sure you don't get lost in the library again."

 _How thoughtful of her._

"Look Anko, any other day, I would welcome your company with the warmest smile I could muster and open arms, but today?" I glanced up to her with tired eyes, "Today I just need some alone time."

She recoiled, "Daaamn! You look like death! Even with just your eyes!"

I let my head fall again, "Thanks for the ego boost Anko…"

I felt her place hand on my shoulder, "No problem! C'mon! Let's go!"

 _She completely ignored me.. might as well deal with it… where is she going?_

Anko had taken a sudden detour to the left, "Hey!"

She peeked back around the corner with an annoyed look, "Yes Ton?"

I matched her look, "Where are you going?"

"To the academy, what's it look like?"

Deadpanning, I craned my neck up to her, "It looks like you're taking the longest way possible to get to the academy."

She huffed, "It's so we can go meet Ibiki alright."

I blanched, "You mean that giant kid in the Shinigami's fortress that was carving up someone?"

"That's the one, but isn't the Shinigami's fortress a bit of a stretch?"

"No."

She stared, and then turned back around the corner, "O-o-ok then, welp, you're coming anyhow."

My brow rose, "And who said I'm going with you?"

She slowly peeked her head out from the corner with a cold look, "What was that?"

I froze, "Nothing!"

"That's what I thought."

I smirked.

 _Might as well try to get some practice in, it might even save me my eyelids!_

I molded some of my chakra into a genjutsu once more, taking into account the sound of my voice, footsteps, and of course, the visual component of me following her.

"Hurry up Ton!"

I looked up from the ground, "Give me a second!"

Turning the corner, I quickly cast the genjutsu directly onto Anko's retreating from.

 _And now, we wait._

I sat at the corner for a few seconds before I saw her turn around.

 _Did I fuck up?!_

"I know you're tired Ton, but could you walk a little faster?"

A grin crept onto my face as I stared.

 _Finally! All that studying actually achieved something!_

I turned back to my normal path, slightly happier and more energized than before, and strolled off, whistling a joyous tune.

* * *

At the academy however, that little boost was gone, both physically, and mentally, as I realized that whenever Anko got here… let's not think about that.

Sitting next to Hayate, I let my head hit the table.

"What's wrong Ton?"

I turned to face him, my head still on the table, "Anko."

 _And sleep deprivation, but that's not as scary._

He recoiled, "I see," He pivoted to look out the window, "Try not to get me involved."

 _Treachery… I still have to get him back don't I?_

I stared holes into the back of his head.

 _Not worth the effort… might as well get some rest since I'm early._

As I felt my eyes close, I had one last, terrifying thought before succumbing to my exhaustion.

 _Anko's definitely going to get here while I'm out._

* * *

I was awoken by Hayate shaking me, "Class is about to start Ton."

I babbled incoherently, but raised my head nonetheless, "Mmmkay."

He shook his head, "I'm sorry."

 _Why's he apologizing-._

My eyes shot wide open. I turned as slowly as I could to my left.

"Hey there Ton."

I paled, met with the sight of purple, "Hi Anko, h-how was your trip here?"

"Oh! It was great until I realized you hadn't said anything the entire trip, and to my surprise, when I tired to get your attention, my hand went straight through you!"

 _Tsk, I knew I forgot something._

I raised my hands in surrender, "Now, Anko, we can talk about thi-," She pat my back, "It's alright Ton."

I let out a breath, "Really?"

She nodded, I smiled, "I'm glad that we can be mature about this," I turned to Anko, and realized something. She was smiling.

 _Innocently._

"What'd you do?"

She placed her hands in her lap, smirking, "You know, I don't know why you always hide your face, you look fine."

I felt a soft breeze on my face.

 _Wait what._

Reaching up to my face, my fingers met skin and I froze, fear clinching my heart.

 _SHIT._

My face went blank, "Anko."

She looked over at me as sweetly as she could, "Yes Ton?"

"Where are my wrappings?"

She put a finger to her chin in thought, "I don't know why you'd think I know."

 _This..this bitch! This is my life!_

I stood up and looked down at her, my hand in front of her on the desk, "Anko," I glared down at her, clenching my other hand so hard it hurt, "Tell me, where my wrappings are."

She stared up at me with an innocent look, shrugging.

 _So, my life's a joke huh? A JOKE!_

My hand was shaking now.

All the sudden, Anko's look changed, she looked, scared, terrified even, tears threatening to pour out of the corners of her eyes.

She was shaking, her breath quickening to the point of hyperventilating.

I unclenched my hand, confused, "Anko?" I reached for her shoulder.

She shrieked, curling in on herself.

 _What?_

I looked around, and I noticed something. Everyone's staring at me.

 _Shaking._

I recoiled, a puzzled look in my eyes.

The door bust open, a blonde man appearing in the doorframe, kunai drawn.

I threw my hands in the air, "I didn't do anything!"

His eyes met my mine, a cold and calculating gaze holding me in place.

A small group of ninjas behind him ran into the room, running to me with weapons drawn. Everyone in class seemed to be back to normal if the shocked gasps were any indicator.

I stood as still as possible, my arms burning from being kept up so long, "I didn't do anything!"

The blonde man walked up to me, still with a cold glare, "You're going to have to come with me."

* * *

Didn't think I'd get a personal meeting with the Third Hokage today, but I suppose this is warranted.

I stood before the man with the hat, his hair in the early stages of greying, a pipe in his mouth, and a few wrinkles on his face, although I believe that was because of the dark look on his face.

"Do you know why you're here today Ton'neru?"

I looked up from the ground, my face in its usual stone mask, "Because of what happened in the classroom sir."

He nodded, pulling the pipe out of his mouth, "Yes, the amount of killing intent you exuded should be impossible for someone of your age," He placed his pipe back in his mouth, "I only want to find out why."

I nodded, swallowing my spit.

 _So that's what it was, but I've never done that before. At least, I don't think._

"Do you have any familial traits that could have led to this incident."

Shaking my head, I looked to the side, "Not that I know of sir."

I felt the cold grip of killing intent start to choke me.

"Are you telling me everything young Ton'neru?"

I nodded my head as fast as I could, attempting to keep from breaking down, "I-I-I have a kekkei genkai, but I don't think it should affect my killing intent."

He continued glaring, "What brought you to such a state that you would be able to do that?"

I gulped, shaking, "O-one of my classmates, Anko, took something very important to my survival, so I got scared."

The pressure disappeared just as quickly as it had begun, I glanced back up at the man, his brow raised, "We'll have to look into that later," He wrote something down and put it to the side, "Do you have any ill intent towards Konoha as a whole?"

I shook my head.

 _Why would I?_

He glared at me, analyzing every part of my face, his gaze cutting through me.

Keeping his eyes on me, his face lightened, a small smile on his face, "I suppose we are finished then, you may leave."

I looked up at him, flabbergasted, "Really?"

He nodded, "You seem genuine enough, so if you say you didn't do it on purpose than I can only believe you, however, we will be consulting your caretaker about this kekkei genkai you speak of."

I nodded fervently.

"Dismissed."

I bowed before turning to go back home.

* * *

"YA WHAT!?"

I was forced back by the yell, "I just had an audience with the Hokage," I rubbed my chin, still unwrapped, "Also, you may get a ninja at your doorstep asking about our kekkei genkai."

Jak-Jak face palmed, "I thought I told ya to keep our ability a secr- what am I talking about, why'd ya have an audience in the first place?"

I crossed my arms, "First off, have you tried to stare down the Hokage and _hide_ something? And second, I might've scarred my classmates."

Jak-Jak massaged her temples, "How?" She sighed, "Never mind, I guess we're stuck here then."

I tilted my head, "Why?"

She deadpanned, "Ya think they'll just let us go?"

I shrugged, "I don't particularly mind, it seems pretty good so far, pretty nice people too."

Jak-Jak sighed, transforming partially in annoyance, "Okay, okay, I can deal with this."

Rubbing the back of my head, I looked to the ground, "I'm sorry."

She huffed, "It's fine, I'm just gonna have to deal with," She shuddered, "Politics."

I laughed, and soon after, she joined in.

* * *

The next day as I left the house, Anko was _not_ waiting outside for me.

 _I wonder why?_

I took a deep breath, new wrappings adorning my face.

 _I'm going to have to apologize to Anko…and probably the rest of the class._

I looked up at the sky.

 _Still pretty early huh?_

I sighed.

 _Might as well, I need something to focus on._

Turning back into my house, I grabbed the two library books, and started off towards my destination.

Walking into the building, I saw the old man from before, just as tired as before.

"Are you alright sir?"

He glanced up at me, "Just fine young man, it's simply how it is when you grow old."  
I nodded, "I finished the other books I checked out, do you have any recommendations on what I should check out next?"

The man hummed in thought, "Well what're you looking for young man?"

"Something I can study ideally, I just need to unwind."

He tilted his head, "That's an odd way to relax, but I'm not one to judge," He looked towards the shelves, "Based on your last books, I'm assuming you're an aspiring ninja?"

"I suppose."

He nodded, "Well then you should try some shinobi history, our Kages, other villages, stuff like that."

"Thank you, sir, I assume it's in the history section?"

"I'd recommend checking the combat section, most of the history section is civilian."

I smiled, "Thanks once again sir."

He grinned back, "It's nothing young man."

I turned and gave him one more nod before I started off to the combat section.

 _What a nice guy._

* * *

I thanked the man before jogging out the door, wouldn't want a redux of what happened last time. As I walked through the streets, I noticed a few people glancing at me, whispering with their friends.

 _Probably should've expected this, there's a good number of prospects in my class. Lots of families._

Doing my best to ignore the looks I was getting, I jogged past the people around to the academy's front doors, catching sight of Hayate walking nearby.

 _Might as well start with him._

"Hey!"

He turned to me, his eyes widening, everything else freezing.

"Hayate! Are you alright?"

He stared at me, still locked up, "I-I'm fine!"

I sighed, "Look, Hayate, I'm sorry about yesterday, I don't know what it was, but I was tired, and frustrated," I shuffled in place uncomfortably, bringing my hand up to my wrapped face, "And scared."

Looking to the ground, I continued, "I messed up, I don't know how, I just did, and I apologize."

Silence reigned over us for a few tense seconds before I felt his hand on my shoulder, and I glanced up, he was smiling, although he was still shaking, "It's fine Ton, it was, it was just an unfortunate experience. For everyone."

I grinned back at him, "Thanks Hayate, I really do appreciate it."

He nodded his head towards the door, "No problem, want to head inside?"

I only nodded. We walked into our classroom, everyone's chatter died down almost instantly.

I turned to the class, everyone shuffled backwards.

 _I'll apologize later, when they're not as on edge._

Hayate and I walked to our seats, whispering rising behind us. I ignored it.

I turned to Hayate, "Do you think Anko'll come to school today?"

He only shrugged.

The door slid open.

 _Talk about timing._

The once boisterous Anko stepped inside meekly, looking as if she hadn't slept a wink since the incident.

She paused when she saw me, but avoided eye contact, slowly walking to her seat next to me.

 _I feel like a dick right now…she didn't even know why my wrappings are so vital... should I ask her if she's okay?...might as well try._

I hesitated, "Anko?"

She flinched back, "I'm sorry."

I leaned back to give her room, "Are you alright?"

She shook, "Yep."

Sighing I put my head down as I usually did before class, "If you don't want to talk that's fine, but let me know when you're comfortable with it, I'd like to apologize then."

She only nodded.

I frowned, and then I thought of a way to cheer her up, "Do you want to see something amusing?"

She turned to me confused and I smirked.

* * *

Half the class was bursting out with laugher while the other half resigned to just watching the spectacle before them.

You see, I cast a genjutsu on Duy, the spandex guy, while he was passing by the window. Nothing to serious.

I convinced him a fake love letter from Meinu had floated down to him.

How it actually worked, I don't know, but all that mattered now, was that Might Duy was on one knee, proposing to our auburn haired, sadist of a teacher, and even better?

 _She said yes._

Our teacher, thought to be a demon in human skin who's only purpose was our pain was blushing like a school girl while jumping up and down in Duy's arms.

I turned to Anko, "I guess I'm a matchmaker huh?"

She was doubled over wheezing.

Hayate chipped in, more confused than anything, "How'd you know?"

I leaned back in my chair, a satisfied smirk on my face, "I can't tell you that, I'd lose my future business."

As he turned back to the window, frustrated, I howled with laughter in my head for one reason, and one reason only.

 _I had no fucking clue it'd work._


	6. Chapter 5

"Clan head! I'm a clan head now!"

Nodding absentmindedly, I continued reading about the village's founding, a glass of water in my hand.

"Are ya even listening to me! This is going to take up all of my free time!"

Not taking my eyes off the page, I took a sip from my cup, "Didn't you want something to occupy your time a few days ago?"

"Well yeah, but I was hoping it'd be more fun!"

I bookmarked my page, looking up to her frazzled appearance, brow raised, "You're an adult."

She huffed, "So? I want to have fun too!"

Shaking my head, I stood up, "Great, if you don't mind I'm going to go practice outside."

She crossed her arms, cheeks puffed up.

 _Sure, adult my ass._

I wondered out into the street, I thought about what to do.

 _Probably should've thought of something to do before I left. I already practiced today._

I walked aimlessly through out Konoha, no rhyme or reason to my ambling. A smaller version of Might Duy walked pat me on his hands, yelling about youth. Like father like son I suppose.

 _Nothing to do once again huh Ton'neru?_

I looked up as I walked.

 _Finished those books, studied every page extensively, practiced my taijutsu after the academy._

Looking down, I realized my hands were clenched. I sighed.

 _Boredom. A vile thing indeed._

Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Hayate and Anko eating peacefully at a food stand, Hayate's sword at his side.

 _I did say I was going to practice before I left…_

I stalked closer to them.

 _Am I really going to do this? So soon after that last debacle?_

Analyzing him from the side, I saw Hayate smiling.

 _Might as well._

I prepared a genjutsu once more, slipping it into his chakra paths like a virus. A fun one though, A, _really_ , fun one.

It's odd seeing someone react to something that no one else can see, but so far, I've enjoyed doing it.

He froze.

"Anko."

She looked up from her dango, "Yes Hayate?"

"There's a spider in your hair."

Anko paled. Silence overtaking the table.

"GET IT OFF-GET IT OFF-GET IT OFF!"

She jumped out of her seat, swiping her hair for the imaginary spider. It seems to be going as planned because Hayate's freaking out now too.

"WHY'D YOU THROW IT AT ME! IT'S HUGE!"

I snickered behind my gauze.

 _Didn't think they'd_ _ **both**_ _be arachnophobic. Small world._

"Release!"

I ambled up to them, "Hey guys."

Hayate panted for a second before turning to me, glaring, "Ton…"

Anko had a much different response, sweating a little bit, "Oh," She sank back into her seat, "Hey Ton."

 _She's still weary of me huh? Can't really blame her._

Hayate put a hand to his chest, "Could you stop using me as a test subject for your genjutsu?"

I put a hand up to my chin in thought, "Maybe."

He sighed, hanging his head.

"Anyway, "I sauntered up to the table, sitting next to Hayate, "How has your guy's days been?"

Hayate brought his head up, "It was going pretty good 'til you tried to kill me."

I turned to him, an inquisitive look on my face, "Really?"

He frowned, "Death by heart attack is more common than you think."

I shrugged, "How about you Anko?"

She seemed startled, "Uh, pretty good I guess."

I leaned back to give her some room. Anko looked surprised but grateful.

"Do either of you have any plans for today?"

They both shrugged.

Although I didn't show it, I was screaming on the inside.

"Well, if you guys want to do something, I'll be at the library."

The two of them nodded and resumed their meal.

The familiar smell of old paper calmed me as I entered the library, the same man their as he always is.

"Hello sir, I was wondering-."

"What I would suggest?"

He turned to me, a small grin on his face, "Sorry for interrupting, but you always ask the same thing when you come here."

I smiled, "I guess I'm pretty predictable huh?"

He chuckled, "Yes, well I suppose botany might interest you?"

I stared up at the man, confused, "Why?"

"Well," He pulled out multiple sheets of paper, "You've already read about genjutsu, taijutsu, ninjutsu, the history of Konoha, the base history we have for the other villages, the kage, the-."

"You can stop, please," I looked up to the man, a strained smile on my face, "I understand."

 _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH-_

"I'll be going then. Have a nice day sir."

 _-HHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGG!_

I started out the door.

* * *

"What am I going to do for the rest of the day?"

I was mumbling to myself, like a healthy person, wondering where I'd go to distract myself.

 _Why is the amount of stuff I can read about limited? I mean, I can understand dangerous things, but there's no way everything in the restricted section is dangerous._

Sighing, I propped my head up on my hand.

 _Should I sneak in?_

The thought forced its way to the forefront of my mind.

 _No, of course not, it's more than likely heavily guarded, and the consequences would probably be regretful at best._

Closing my eyes, I considered what I could do remedy the plague that is boredom.

 _Where would I go to study?_

My eyes shot open.

 _Kami I'm an Idiot. The academy!_

I jogged into the academy, headed towards my classroom.

Sliding the door open, Meinu turned to the door surprised, "Ton'neru? What are you doing here?"

I hardened my face, "I would like to learn more about the ninja arts."

Her face went blank for a few seconds, "Well I don't think I can help you with that."

I blanched, "W-why not?"

She sighed, "Because that would be me showing favoritism to a student."

I stepped forward, "We're ninja, doesn't that nullify the need for babying?"

Now she looked confused, "What do you mean by that?"

"Based on the amount of paperwork on your desk, you don't have any apprentices or students after class, right?"

Her eyes narrowed, but she nodded.

 _I'm right?! I mean, of course I'm right, nothing to do with the fact that the class thanks she's a sadist._

"Then you have time, and no one's taken the initiative anyway, so doesn't it only make sense to teach me?"

She crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair, "And what do I get from this?"

"You get," I looked around, trying to think of a reward, my eyes finding nothing useful, "Experience in apprenticing, teaching past general studies, you're a chunin instructor so you might be able to advance to tokubetsu jonin in training ninja."

We stare at one another, tension filling the already relatively choked room.

Her eyes stayed narrow, "You're very well read for an eight-year-old. I accept."

I nodded.

 _WHAT THE HELL!? THAT WOR- you know what, never mind, just go with it Ton'neru._

"When do we start?"

She turned to the papers on her desk, "After this week ends, we'll start after class each weekday. We'll start with taijutsu and we'll progress from there. Understood?"

I nodded once more.

"Dismissed."

As I walked out of the room, I couldn't help but smile.

 _I don't know what she can teach me, but at least my boredom will be abated for a while. After just a week._

My smirk disappeared.

* * *

Once again, I found myself at home, in my room, contemplating my existence.

 _Boredom. Still infesting every crevice of my mind._

I shifted in bed, looking out the window.

 _Boredom. Still keeping me awake at night._

Sitting up in bed, I pulled myself out of bed, shuffling to the window, still covered in gauze, only my pants over it.

 _ **Boredom**_ _._ _ **Still bringing me to the damn brink.**_

I unlatched the window, sliding it up and welcoming the moonlight directly into my room.

 _ **Boredom.**_

The only thing left in my room was the moonlight, and a soft breeze from outside.

* * *

I found myself floating up through an ajar window in the back of the library, no hesitation. Anything to distract myself.

No one was patrolling the inside of the library, hell, no one was in this section of the library. Dropping down to the floor, I surveyed the shelves surrounding me.

 _What am I looking for?_

I had no clue.

 _Let's start with a more advanced guide on nature release._

I nodded to my own thoughts, stalking through the aisles. This section wasn't ordered alphabetically, it wasn't even organized really, outside of being on the shelves, everything was random.

 _Where am I going to find something like that…_

I reached the end if the aisle, and I snuck around the side into the next one. A book was sticking out precariously over a stack of books and scrolls. I reached up to grab it, but the pile lurched suddenly, the scrolls and books sliding into me in such a way that if I moved back or reached up to grab the book, the stack would fall all over me.

 _Shit._

I pushed them back into place, snatching the book on top out of curiosity.

 _Really? Wind release?_

I sighed, placing it back on top.

 _This is going to take a while._

 _~30 Minutes later~_

 _FINALLY! A book on earth release, kami._

Elated, I shifted the books on the shelf around to hide the slot it was in. Now all I need is chakra paper, but where am I going to find it before I graduate?

 _Is there a guard?_

I haven't seen a guard during the day, but maybe there's one at night. I crouch ran over to the main door. Luckily, it was unlockable from this side, creeping the door open, I saw a chubby chunin sitting just to the left of the door.

 _Can't believe my luck today._

Transforming into smoke to avoid making any noise, I floated to the teenager, shuffling through his pockets.

 _Let's see, some money, I'll take that, some…soldier pills maybe? We'll take that too, aaaaand, chakra paper! Finally, a break!_

I floated away, rising to the window, my prizes in hand. Or smoke, whatever.

* * *

As I awoke, my eyes were greeted by an angry Jak-Jak looking down at me, "Did ya stay up late **again** , Ton'neru?"

Deciding it would be better for my everything if I played along, "Sorry Jak-Jak, I got a new book at the library and I guess I lost track of time," I tried to look as pitiful as possible without overselling.

She sighed, "It's fine Ton'neru, it's just unhealthy to stay up so late," I heard her footsteps receding back to the entrance to my room, "I want to see you out of bed in ten minutes alright?"

"Of course, Jak-Jak."

She closed the door behind her. I immediately floated out of bed to the book across the room

 _Alright, time for the grand reveal._

I floated back over to the side of the bed, putting the earth release book on my bed stand. I finished it last night at the cost of my sleep. Worth it.

Lifting my mattress up, I grabbed the few slips of chakra paper I'd gotten.

 _All of my work and study relies on what I get. One in five._

I pulled one away from the rest, a nice square. Sighing I stared at the slip of paper.

 _If I don't get earth release, it's not the end of the world, but if I get lighting release…_

Starting to sweat, I gulped.

 _I'm not an original inhabitant of Konoha so my chances of having fire release shouldn't be drastically higher than the others…I'm stalling._

Sighing, I steeled my resolve, channeling chakra into the paper.

It transformed into dirt in my hand.

 _ **Oh thank kami.**_

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding, a massive pressure seemed to have left me. Now, now I had a chance to live past twenty. I transformed unwillingly, perfect timing. It wouldn't matter soon anyway.

Floating out into the living room, I whistled happily.

Jak-Jak turned from the paperwork in front of her to me, "What's got ya so happy Ton'neru? Ya seemed downright apathetic when I was in there a few minutes ago."

Pausing my whistling I turned to her, "Just enjoying living."

She gave me a cautious look, "Mmhmm, why're ya transformed now?"

I chuckled, "Calm down Jak-Jak, it's just one of 'those' ones."

She turned back to the paperwork, rolling her eyes, "Anyway, the reason I wanted you up was to let you know we're moving out of this dump. In about a week."

"What? Why?"

Jak-Jak grinned, "The higher ups decided that since we're a new clan to Konoha, we, and I quote, are to have sufficient housing until they grow further, as they are a possible asset now, and in the future."

"So, am I still going to the academy?"

She nodded.

"Alright, I'm fine with it," I grabbed one of my jackets off of our crappy sofas, "I'll be going now, going to the academy and all."

"Sure, just don't get lost."

 _Of course we're still on that._

As I've done countless times before, I sauntered out into the streets of Konoha, after I transformed back of course. A smile on my face, and rings under my eyes, although that's a given at this point.

 _Oh look! There's Might Duy and his Kid!...and Meinu... doing handstand races…they deserve eachother._

Strolling into the academy, I found my seat, and leaned back.

 _It seems I'm the first person here, granted, Meinu was…exercising?_

I stared at the ceiling.

 _Might as well get a nap in, cause that went so well last time._

* * *

"Ton, wake up."

I raised my head up, still in a haze, "Anko?"

"Yeah, it's me."

Craning my neck around I noticed no one else was here, "Why're you so early Anko?"

She shrugged, "Nothing better to do I guess."

"Mmm."

The atmosphere grew more tense as we both stared forward.

 _Now or never I suppose._

"Look, Anko," She turned to meet my gaze, "That incident, just, these wrappings are actually pretty important to my survival, and after years having them, it's just, scary not having them."

She continued staring as I explained.

"I just wanted to let you know so you didn't think I was some sort of demon."

She kept staring.

 _Guess I should've waited a bit longer._

I turned to look forward again.

"You're pretty scary when you want to be Ton."

 _Really? Right after I explain myself?_

Getting ready to defend myself, she started again, "But you're also a pretty cool guy."

I didn't respond for a few seconds, shocked, before I turned away again, "Thanks," I remembered the talk with Jak-Jak, "Oh, and also, I'm moving in about a week."

Anko's eyes widened, "Well that's sudden, why?"

I shrugged, "Clan stuff."

Her brow rose, "You're in a clan?"

I rubbed the back of my neck, "Yeah, my aunt just didn't want to become a clan to avoid politics, so she asked me to keep it a secret."

She stared at me.

"What? Is there something on my face? Besides the gauze I mean."


	7. Chapter 6

**~4 years later~**

I found myself at a food stand in the streets of Konoha with Hayate and Anko, her munching and the sound of me tapping my foot on the ground out of frustration the only sounds at the table.

We all hadn't changed much, besides Anko's even more promiscuous clothes in the form of her mesh and only her jacket over it, normal pants in place, the only major change was that I got a shinobi combat glove on my left hand, the metal plating on the back of my hand engraved with the symbol of the leaf.

"Anko, do you mind eating like a normal human being?"

She paused her ravenous onslaught, glaring at me, "I am eating like a normal human being, You guys are just slow eaters."

Staring at her, I put a hand to my face, massaging the bridge of my nose, "Sure Anko, sure."

Hayate, ever the peacekeeper, jumped in, "Guys, let's just eat, alright?" He seemed to deflate, "It's already stressful enough as it is with the team placements tomorrow."

I propped my head up on my hand, thinking. I had made a lot of progress in the few years I'd been in Konoha, my taijutsu was average, ninjutsu was fine as I could do the transformation and substitution jutsu without any trouble, and my genjutsu, I don't really have a scale, but I think it's at least above average, and I even nailed low ranking earth techniques.

Anko finally stopped eating to speak, "Yeah, I guess you guys might be worried, but I already know who my Jonin teacher will be."

Hayate gaped while I glanced up interestedly, "And how is that?"

She grinned, "Because he's been teaching me for about two years now!"

 _WHAT._

I started choking on my own spit, mimicking the voice in my head, "W-what!?"

Hayate just let his head hit the table with a resounding _thunk_.

Placing my hand on my neck, I massaged my throat, "you've been getting lessons from a Jonin for **two** years? Without telling us?"

 _No wonder she beats my ass whenever we spar._

Anko at least had the decency to look sheepish, "Well, you guys never asked."

I inhaled deeply and admired the sky around me, scrutinizing the orange leaves drifting in the wind.

 _That's fine._

Turning my gaze back to Anko, a small smile on face, "How could we have known if you never did anything suspicious Anko?"

She leaned back with a confused look on her face, "First of all, what was that? And second, I dunno, you guys are supposed to be ninjas."

I tilted my head, "I'm afraid I don't know what you mean."

She narrowed her eyes, "Ton…"

I kept staring at her, "Yes?"

Sighing, she facepalmed, "You're weird."

Hayate rose from his defeated state, seemingly tired, "Well, who is it?"

Anko turned to him, "Hmm?"

Gesturing with his hand, he continued, "Who's your teacher?"

 _Wow, how'd I forget to ask that?_

Practically glowing with pride, Anko put a hand to her chest, "Only one of the Sannin of course!"

My eyes widened slightly, "Oh, so it's Orochimaru?"

Hayate dropped his head back to the table.

She blanched, "Why're you so unimpressed?! And how do you even know it's- if it's him!?"

"Well, Tsunade left the village after the 2nd Shinobi world war, and although you're just about as perverted as Jiraiya went off to travel soon after her. Oh, and I didn't really grow up here, so I don't really have any connection to him, although from what I've heard, he's an exceptional shinobi."

Anko glared at me, "You're damn right he is, and I'm not perverted, I'm sexy."

"You're twelve."

Her eyes became half-lidded, and she started to crawl over the table, a husky tone to her voice, "So?"

Hayate started blushing, turning away while I settled for deadpanning, "You're aware that I gave you the nickname the Purple Prostitute when we were younger right? I'm not getting any sloppy seconds."

A torrent of red flushed through her face, her eyes dangerously narrow, "You dick! I'm still a virgin!"

"I'd hope so, although you do hang around Ibiki a lot…"

As hard as I tried, it just slipped out, whatever she was yelling at me was drowned out by my laughter, Hayate soon joining in.

* * *

"On team 9, we have Anko Mitarashi-."

 _I guess team 9 is Orochimaru's team then. Wonder who'll get stuck with her._

"Hayate Gekko-."

I started to sweat.

 _Sorry Hayate, I suppose someone had to take one for the team._

"And Ton'neru Iburi. Your Jonin teacher will be Orochimaru, of the Sannin."

The class quieted at that, whispering rising throughout the class about how lucky we were to have a Sannin as our teacher.

 _All I wanted was a break from Anko's attempts at being sexy, but I suppose even my thoughts jinx me…déjà vu huh?_

I leaned back in my seat, staring at the ceiling.

 _Oh well, at least I won't be bored._

I decided to tune out the sound of Meinu listing off the rest of the teams, it wouldn't help me anyway. Turning to the right, I saw Hayate with a hopeful smile on his face, although he was sweating, and when I pivoted back to my left, I haven't seen Anko that happy, well, ever really.

 _Maybe it won't be so bad._

The jonin teachers entered, dragging their new teams alongside them as they left until it was only us three in the room, even Meinu left, although, she seemed a bit to excited to leave after getting some flowers delivered to her desk.

Just as I was about to say something, the door slid open, and a pale man wearing a light-yellow robe along with typical ninja attire. His long black hair swung with his movement, and he was just barely taller than I was strolled in, piercing yellow eyes surveyed the room.

 _He's shorter than I thought he'd be._

I was sitting down at my seat, my head propped up on my hand as it usually is, a disinterested look on my face, Hayate was polishing his sword, and Anko…I've never seen her fangirl before, but now?

She jumped up from her seat, an excited look on her face, "Orochimaru! Can I help you with anything? Oh, these are my-."

He rose his hand, a smirk on his face, "Calm down Anko, the theatrics although amusing, is unnecessary."

 _He even sounds like a snake._

Hayate realized that someone else had entered the room, jumping back in surprise.

Orochimaru placed a hand on his chest, feigning sadness, "Oh I know I'm a little intimidating, but that just hurts Hayate."

 _Hypocritical huh?_

His gaze turned to me, and for a moment he just stared, and then he smirked, "Why hello there, you must be Ton'neru, the one that's a part of the new Iburi clan correct?"

I nodded absentmindedly, "Yep."

 _This guy's kind of creepy, the way he talks in all. I swear if my new teacher's a pedophile I'm going to be pissed._

He hummed in thought, continuing to stare me directly in the eyes, unblinking.

 _Definitely creepy…_

"Are my eyes really that pretty?"

Pausing, he stared into the distance surprised before breaking out into full-on laughter, "Oh my, it seems we have a comedian on the team."

I shrugged, standing up, I reached out a hand, "It's nice to meet you."

Silence reigned over the almost empty classroom, Hayate and Anko paling in my peripheral vision, and Orochimaru staring at my hand like I just handed him an Ichi-Ichi novel.

Nonetheless, he slowly brought his hand up to mine, giving me a firm handshake, a grin breaking out on his face, "Oh, you'll _definitely_ be interesting."

Nodding, I returned to my seat in between my two new teammates.

 _And that seals it. A pedophile for a teacher, great._

Walking to the middle of the room, he placed a hand on his hip, analyzing us with a serious look, "You all will report to me at the perimeter of training ground 44 at 0400 hours tomorrow, understood?"

We resembled a line of bobbleheads.

"Wonderful. Dismissed."

Much like he strolled in, he strolled out, charisma and confidence oozing off his person.

We all sat in silence.

"Am I the only one who didn't know if he was really a guy until he spoke?"

Hayate smiled, although hesitantly, and Anko lunged at me.

"I can't believe you disrespected Orochimaru like that!"  
I rubbed the back of my neck in frustration, "Anko, it was just, a **handshake**."

She stamped her foot to the ground, killing intent leaking out of her, "You were supposed to bow Ton!"

Raising my brow, I deadpanned, "Really? Killing intent? Do you really want to do that?"

I'll give her credit, she remained steadfast in her temper tantrum, that takes some dedication, especially after some light childhood scarring. I narrowed my eyes, letting out enough **KI** to just overpower hers.

As quick as I could blink she jumped back startled, "Why does none of my stuff work on you!?"

Irked, I shot back, "I practically live with an overgrown three-year-old already, so you're not so difficult."

Anko settled for growling at me this time.

"C'mon guys, could you just stop arguing, I'm going crazy just listening to you guys speak!"

 _Well, that's surprising, Hayate almost never gets mad._

I looked to the sky, focusing on each and every detail I could find, the dying leaves, the breeze, nature in general.

 _It's fine, the argument isn't important._

"Alright," I stood up from my seat, my hand slipping behind Hayate's chair as I did so, "I'm going to go train. Find me if you need me."

Ambling my way out of the academy, I admired the sword in hand. High quality, nothing too special, but durable and sharp, I suppose that's all you need.

 _Perfect. Going to have to return it though._

Noticing a cart going by with a whistle on it, I took advantage of the surrounding food carts, and blended my transformed hand into the smoke, snatching it away from the cart. I quickly molded my chakra into a needle as I'd done countless times before, creating a genjutsu and infusing it into the whistle. A small grin wormed its way onto my face.

I turned outward to the crowd of people rushing around, selling, eating.

And I blew.

Almost immediately I noticed a change, none of them responded to the whistle, they merely swapped directions as if nothing happened. They also seemed to look through me, not noticing me. I smirked.

 _Like. A. Charm._

I swept through the crowd, nabbing small bits of merchandise, some snacks, and one, suspiciously worn Ichi-Ichi book. Sauntering my way into an alleyway, I floated up the side of the building, lying on the shingles face up.

 _Never thought I'd become a kleptomaniac, but here I am, goodies in hand, and a smile on my face. This is the life._

Looking out across the village, it's usually green foliage now differing degrees from yellow to brown. Crossing my arms behind my head, I closed my eyes, letting out a breath of pure contentment.

"Ton'neru Iburi."

My eyes opened slowly, "Why hello there Fugaku, how's the wife?"

The man sighed, hanging his head ever so slightly, "Why are you on the roofs again Ton'neru?"

I never looked directly over to him, settling for the peaceful view I had, "For this," I gestured towards the village, the Hokage Rock in sight.

He walked up next to me, "Although it is a beautiful view, you aren't allowed up here unless you've become a fully-fledged ninja, which based on your lack of a headband, you aren't, although I've told you multiple times."

I gestured to my glove.

A grunt was all I got in return, "Very well, however, if you vandalize or destroy anything up here," He glared at me, **KI** flooding my surroundings, and his Sharingan activated, spinning threateningly, "I'll find you."

Nodding, I shooed the man away, if there was one thing I learned while training with Meinu, it was that I had an absurd resistance to **KI** , no clue why, it just seemed muted to me, and also, I know he isn't going to do anything, he's the Uchiha clan heir, and based on his age, he'd soon become the clan head, so he wouldn't risk his reputation on me.

The sound of a Body Flicker activating was all I heard behind as the wind rushed.

 _Good thing I'm not transformed._

Sitting up after he left, I jumped down back into the alleyway, "Release."

Shouts were immediately heard along with crashing carts.

Sighing, I turned to the deepest part of the alley, I swiped a B-ranked earth technique from the restricted section and started going through the hand seals as quickly as possible, I whispered.

"Earth Release: Golem technique."

I waited in anticipation.

 _I definitely felt a drain on my chakra, so maybe it'll work this time?_

A small golem began to rise out of the ground, maybe one foot in height, began forming itself out of chakra alone, its legs propping up a large bulky body, and club-like arms attaching themselves to its sides.

 _Come on, all that's left is the head!_

A stone started rolling up the torso.

 _Is it actually going to work!?_

The whole structure froze as the head reached its destination.

…

It started to turn to dust under my gaze.

 _Tsk, really? Getting my hopes up… at least the lower level stuff works._

Sighing, I stood up and strolled off out of the alleyway. The commotion from before had settled down to only a few people whining about their lost cabbages or something. Looking to the sky as I walked, I clenched my hands in my pockets.

Throwing open the door, I walked in ignoring Jak-Jak's greeting and promptly falling face first onto our couch. I closed my eyes, focusing on the silence throughout the house.

I heard Jak-Jak's footsteps grow closer to my downed form. A reassuring hand pressed into my back, "Are ya alright Ton'neru?"

My fingers twitched, and I shifted my face on its side, "Nothing you need to concern yourself with, ninja stuff."

She sighed, rubbing my back, "I deal with the council at least once a week, I think I should concern myself."

Glancing back to her face, I picked my self up from the softness of the cushions, "It's fine Jak-Jak, I'm only frustrated about something I was assigned. I simply need to practice more," I lied.

Jak-Jak stared me in the eyes for what felt like minutes, trying to decipher if I was telling the truth, "Alright, but let me know if ya need some help Ton'neru."

I nodded and then stood up, "Anyway, I was given an order by my new teacher to wake up early, so I'm off to bed."

"Alright, sleep well."

I smiled at her, although it was forced, and walked towards my room.

 _KNOCK KNOCK._

Turning to the door confused, I ambled over to it.

 _I wonder who that could be?_

Just outside my doorframe was Hayate, with a less than pleased look on his face.

 _Ohhhh… probably should've expected this._

"Hello Hayate, what can I do for?"

"I need my sword back Ton."

I tilted my head, "What makes you think I-d have it?"

He facepalmed, "I can see it on your back Ton," he glanced up at me, "Also, this isn't really unusual."

I turned to look at the scabbard on my back, "Hmm, wonder how that got there," grabbing it I handed it to him, "Here you go."

Snatching it out of my hands, he marched off.

 _That took him longer than normal. Point, me._

The sounds of nature in the clearing just before the forest was relaxing, leaves rustling, birds chirping, and my own breaths were all I could here. Even so, the forest certainly had a dark aura surrounding it, as a few small animals downright avoided entry, running away. I found solace in the lack of people, no one to try to talk to me, no one to annoy me with their chatter, just my own thoughts flying through my head.

I'm early, not completely unheard of, but not commonplace either. Sleep came quicker than expected, and to my disappointment, I couldn't fall asleep again after I'd awoken. So here I was, sitting on a large rock outside training ground 44 also known as the Forest of Death, alone.

A distinctive blow of wind and leaves blew by me, letting me know someone body flickered behind me.

"Why hello there Ton'neru, eager for experience are we?"

Turning to the pale man, I shrugged, "I suppose you could say that."

He placed his hand on my shoulder, "Well since you've gotten here so early, how about I teach you something, hmm?"

I stood up, stretching my arms, "Sure, what'd you have in mind?"

Walking in front of the stone, he turned to me and demonstrated a series of hand seals, slowly so I could memorize their order. A puff of smoke later and another Orochimaru was standing by his side, the original bringing back his hand.

Glancing at the man's yellow eyes, I stared inquisitively.

Faster than I could follow, his hand erupted through to the other side of the clone.

 _Ouch._

However, instead of blood flying everywhere, mud did as the clone degraded, collapsing to the ground.

My eyes widened slightly, "Wow," I walked over to the mess of now unshaped mud on the ground, "That's pretty good for diversion huh? Although most if not all clones are."

"Yess, that technique could be used for diversion, now, why don't you try?"

Looking back at the man, I sighed.

 _Might as well,_ _it might even be in my range for skill._

Putting myself into the correct stance, I performed the hand seals, molding my chakra and forming the clone.

With a puff much like the usual clone technique, a copy of myself appeared before me.

 _It worked?_

Freezing, I stared at myself, my eyes drifting across the clone, looking for anything wrong, and yet I couldn't find a discrepancy, my glove was on the right hand, the jacket was identical, and even my wrappings were done correctly.

Bringing my hand back, I punched the clone in the face as hard as I could, my image turning to mud.

A manic grin forced its way onto my face, I turned to Orochimaru, "I-it actually worked!"

For a split second I saw him smiling before he became confused, "Of course it would work. Did you expect something else?"

I shook my head, "Not really, I just thought it was too hard for me to do, but I can't complain," my legs transformed to smoke as I got excited.

 _Perhaps because I see myself in the mirror everyday and my familiarity with the normal clone technique made this one easier, either way, this is a gateway, a gateway to progress!_

His eyes filled with an only slightly creepy excitement, "So this is your clan's ability Ton'neru?"

Nodding absentmindedly, I looked at my hands, bringing my legs back to the way they were.

 _Now if I can reverse engineer the Tsuchikage's Added Rock Weight technique to not have the rocks covering everything it touches…_

"Very interesting indeed, the ability to go between smoke and flesh at will."

Ignoring his comments, I turned to him, "Do you know about the Tsuchikage's techniques?"

Seeing the look in my eye, he paused in his musings, "A few, why?"

I told him about the issue with my clan's smoke transformation.

"I see I see, your clan's ability is restricted by an involuntary transformation, which, if I've understood you correctly, is highly susceptible to even the slightest breeze."

I nodded.

"And to fix this, you wish to create a jutsu which will passively increase your density to resist the wind?"

Nodding once more I sat down, tapping my foot.

He stood there with his arms crossed for a few minutes, "You are one well read, and odd child for sure," He smirked, "I _like_ that. Very well, we can start now until your fellow teammates show up in approximately one hour."

Choosing to ignore his tone, I jumped up from my seat, "So how should we start? Condensing the chakra in my system? Covering my self in dust and running chakra through my pores to the dust? Oh, how about-."

Raising his hand, he smirked, "Ton'neru, I expected this of Anko, not one like yourself, although your enthusiasm for learning is refreshing."

I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly, "My bad, I'm just excited about not worrying about my life every day."

Still smirking he pat me on the shoulder, "It's the expected reaction," he gestured towards the edge of the forest, "Come, we start immediately."

* * *

Hayate was on the ground crying with laughter while Anko only stared, confused, "W-why're you guys doing that?"

As odd as it sounded, we were in somewhat of a squat, holding the snake seal, and despite my reservations about Orochimaru's innuendos, nothing had gone wrong yet. We were firmly planting our feet into the ground.

"Ah, Anko, welcome, we're currently trying to create a jutsu to help with Ton'neru's performance issues."

 _Does he even realize what that sounds like? I mean, he must, right?_

Clearing my throat, I spoke up, "We're making a jutsu to keep me from dying."

Orochimaru bust out laughing, letting go of his seal to grab his knees, "Oh why do you have to ruin my fun Ton'neru?"

 _Not going to dignify that with a response._

* * *

 **A/N:** Alright, this chapter was the most frustrating to write by a large margin, mainly because of Orochimaru's characterization at this point in the timeline, and the way chakra works in general. Please let me know if he didn't feel right, or if anything was wrong, and feel free to suggest things I could do to improve my writing, the story, or both.

Hopefully, I'll see you next chapter, and I hope you enjoyed.


	8. Chapter 7

All three of us were sitting on the stone just outside of the forest, Orochimaru in front of us with a hand on his hip, "Now, before we start, how about some introductions from everyone? Your aspirations, dreams," he paused, "fears."

 _How encouraging._

"We'll start with Anko, as she seems to be about ready to blow."

I turned to Anko, she did, in fact, look like if she didn't talk soon, her larynx would implode. She immediately stood up, "Yes, I am Anko Mitara-."

"Anko, we've all been friends since we were eight, why don't you skip that," I cut in.

Hayate nodded next to me while Anko glared at me, " **Fine** , my dream is to become an amazingly sexy kunoichi that'll surpass even Tsunade!"

Orochimaru giggled. Actual schoolgirl like giggling.

 _Could he not?_

"A fine goal indeed Anko, I'm sure you'll achieve it, but how about your fears?"

Anko puffed out her chest, a smug grin on her face, "I have no fears!"

Deadpanning, I faced Orochimaru, "She's terrified of spiders and disappointing you."

"I'M GONNA MAIM YOU TON!"

I rolled my eyes.

A mirthful grin on his face, Orochimaru turned to Hayate, "It's your turn, my little swordsman."

After blanching at our teacher, Hayate sat up straight, "O-of course Orochimaru, my dream is to become more skilled in kenjutsu than my parents," shuffling uncomfortably, he steeled his nerves, looking Orochimaru in the eye, "And my fears are stagnating in growth, spiders, and losing my friends."

I looked at Hayate.

 _Heh, I knew he was a big softie._

Finally, Orochimaru set his sights on me, yellow meeting grey, an impregnable silence following for what felt like an eternity.

"And you, Ton? Are you afraid of spiders?"

Pausing, I propped my head up on my hand closing my eyes.

 _What do I want?_

Taking a few more seconds, I started, "My aspiration is to lead a life that doesn't bore me, and I fear my own death."

Orochimaru paused at that, it was almost unnoticeable, but I saw him falter. He recovered almost instantly though, leaning forward with his hands on his hips, "With that type of goal your life _will_ be boring, why don't you give me something more exciting?"

Sighing I leaned forward, "Fine, then how about, "I opened my eyes, looking around, thinking of my skills, "How about becoming the greatest genjutsu user in the lands, is that contrived enough for you?"

His smirk grew almost predatory, "Now that's more like it Ton'neru, a goal worth reaching."

 _Completely ignored my tone, but at least we're done._

He glanced back at the forest, "Now, contrary to what you were told at the academy," He leveled his gaze on each of us, "You all are yet to be fully fledged genin."

 _You have got to be kidding me._

Hayate led his head fall, a defeated sigh escaping him, Anko paled, apparently not liking the idea of missing out on learning more from Orochimaru. I, however, only rose a brow.

 _As much as this sucks, I expected something like this._

"But we all made it through the academy with high scores!"

He only smiled, "As true as that is, that only qualifies you to be cadets, I and the other teachers are to test you to see if you can become genin."

I sighed, rubbing my eyes, "Alright," bringing my head up I turned to my friends, "All we have to do is make it through his test, right? Then, lets pass, simple as that."

Hayate brought his head up with a hopeful smile. Meanwhile, Anko still seemed disheartened, but she hid it well behind her boisterous attitude, "Y-yeah, we got this! Easy!"

Orochimaru practically bared his teeth with a smile, "And what makes you think you can pass?"

My eyes rose to meet his, a resolute fire behind my leer.

"Because if I have to sit through one more damn lecture on chakra theory, I'm going to **kill** someone."

He stared at me with a surprised look, a grin creeping its way onto his face, "I see."

Anko looked at me, her eyes wide as plates.

Rolling my eyes, I stood up, looking to Orochimaru, "So what's our test?"

"You three," He pointed into the forest, "Are to search through the forest looking for an extremely rare species of snake. Its colors differ; However, they all share the unique trait of being rather large, as well as having a lime green diamond just on the top of their head."

 _How unexpected, a snake in Orochimaru's test._

Hayate spoke up, confused, "I don't mean offend, but that sounds pretty easy, with everything considered."

Orochimaru smirked, "Don't worry about that Hayate, I'm confident you three will have your hands full," he faced the forest, "You have until the end of today, starting now."

I started off immediately towards the forest, calling out over my shoulder, "Come on guys, let's get this over with."

* * *

 **~6 hours later~**

"C'mon guys! Carry your own weight!"

 _I'm going to kill her._

I leered at Anko, "Maybe we could if you'd stop nagging every ten seconds, **Anko**."

She glared over her shoulder, "I don't nag, **Ton'neru**."

Hayate cut in, a tired look on his face, "Can't we just calm down and finish the mission guys," He looked up at us pleadingly, "Please?"

Sighing, I faced forward, Anko huffing out much more vocally, "FIIINE."

The sounds of the forest overtook us once more, animals disrupting our silence every few minutes. Turning my attention towards our surroundings, the remaining foliage around us colored in vivid yellow hues, some a darker brown.

 _Fall is ending soon then I suppose_. _A shame, the yellows are rather nice to look at…_ _is…is that the snake?_

Taking a second look, that was definitely the snake, its forehead adorned a lime green diamond, it's scales a pale brown, almost white.

 _How'd I miss that?_

"Guys," I whispered.

They continued rummaging in their spots, ignoring me.

My eyes narrowed, and I tried again, a bit more forcefully, " **Guys.** "

Hayate was the first to hear me, noticing the snake. He reached out, getting Anko's attention, " _Hey..."_

She turned, seeing what we saw through the brush, "Ohhh!"

 _Anko, you insufferable-._

The snake started slithering away at high speeds, "Damn it!"

I gave chase, Anko passing me to reach the snake, and Hayate matching my speed, "Kami! How long _is_ this thing!?"

Offering a shrug mid-sprint in reply, we heard Anko yelling, "Slow down you-!"

She fell silent.

 _That's not good._

Looking to Hayate, he had a worried look on his face, I sped up through the woods, pushing branches out of the way and jumping clear over fallen trees.

The sight I held before me was one almost from myth, or fairy tales. Almost forty feet in length and a foot in diameter, a beige snake- no, serpent, was wrapped around Anko's whole body, except for her right arm, a muffled screaming coming from the mass of scales. It's head easily twice the size of our own.

 _Yeah, rather large my ass. Pedophilic imbecile…_

I took a deep breath in, and without turning, I yelled to Hayate, "Focus on its main body, specifically around Anko! See if you can get it to loosen its grip!"

He only nodded, jumping forward, sword at the ready.

 _Now, what the hell can I do to this thing? I'm not Might Duy or his son so definitely not taijutsu, my ninjutsu is limited to mud clones, and an extremely unrefined Golem technique, so my only choice is genjutsu if its brain is even sophisticated enough for it to work._

Readying a genjutsu to make it unable to see or hear us, I circled the beast, attempting to draw its attention, "HEY!"

Its monstrous head swiveled around to meet my gaze.

 _There we go…_

I started sprinting around it, casting the genjutsu on it, sprinting up to Anko's arm, still writhing trying to scratch at its scales.

 _Like that'll work._

Drawing a kunai, I placed it in her hands, hoping she wouldn't pass out for at least a few more minutes. Almost immediately after getting a hold on the kunai, she started stabbing the snake's body, going hilt deep with each attack.

Its massive tail swung around towards me, prompting me to transform into smoke, the appendage swinging through me. I floated backward as fast as possible, preparing another illusion. One that without their distractions, more than likely would end with my violent end through blunt force.

Hayate's refined swordsmanship allowed him to weave through the monster's attacks, slicing at whatever piece of exposed snake he could.

 _Let's hope this doesn't fuck up._

Practically stabbing the serpent with my chakra, I forced my genjutsu to its central nervous system, overriding any and all commands being sent.

 ** _Sleep._**

The thrashing and destruction of the forest slowed, its hold on Anko visibly weakening as its head lulled from side to side. Pulling herself away from the loose, scarred scales, Anko jumped towards the ground outside, heaving on the ground, taking in gasps of what I could only assume to her, was precious air.

With one final hiss, the serpent collapsed onto the forest floor, crushing everything beneath it. I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding, and jogged up to Anko, "Are you alright Anko?"

She took in a few more labored breaths, "Y-yeah," placing her hands on her knees, she looked to the sky, "T-thanks for the h-help."

 _No way she's fine, especially with the way she's breathing._

I reached down, and lifted her up to her feet, making her lean on me, "Your ribs are probably damaged from the constriction, especially with its weight."

Anko tried to pull away, but I didn't let her, she's in no condition to refuse help.

"Just work with me Anko, the quicker we get back to Orochimaru, the quicker we can get you medical attention."

Huffing, she leaned into my side, arm wrapped over my shoulder.

A shout came from the snake's body, Hayate sitting on it, "How're we going to bring this back?"

I froze.

 _Damn it._

* * *

Orochimaru was still where we left him, on the rock. He was sporting his usual twisted grin, his legs crossed, "I assume you three were unsuccessful?"

Hayate pulled a bloody scrap of skin from his back pocket, a lime green diamond colored into the slightly discolored skin.

He seemed pleasantly surprised if his cackling was any indicator.

"Oh, the poor serpent, you three our ruthless."

Bringing up his hand into a hand seal, a large puff came from the forest behind us, the diamond leaving with it.

 _It was a summon._

Maintaining a stone face, I looked to Orochimaru, "You sent us in there with a high level summon?"

He smirked, "High level? Just be grateful it wasn't Manda."

 _The giant snake you used in the war? Gee thanks for not using it. On FRESH GENIN._

I felt Anko slip a little, so I readjusted, "Alright, well Anko was injured during the fight, so if we could get her some help, I'm sure it would be much appreciated."

At that, he frowned, noticing Anko's injured form. He nodded, motioning for me to hand her over to him. After getting her in his arms, he body flickered away, leaving Hayate and me in his literal dust.

 _Wow._

My eye twitched, but I ignored that, and turned to Hayate, who still had a worried look plastered on his face, "She'll be fine, "I rubbed my eyes, and gave him a small grin, "Feel like getting some food?"

"S-sure."

* * *

We were in the Konoha streets at a food stand, nothing special. I didn't grab a snack whilst Hayate just got himself some ramen. Eh, not my kind of food.

He finished slurping from his bowl, "So," He burped, flushing slightly, "Excuse me, so when do you think Anko will be back?"

Propping my head up on my hand, I closed my eyes, "With her tenacity and the skill of Konoha's medics, she'll be fine before the days even over."

"And what makes you so sure abou-."

"YOU GUYS ARE EATING WITHOUT ME!"

 _Bingo._

Opening my eyes, I glanced at Anko, "Hello."

She was literally fuming, "After my valiant sacrifice-."

I threw a full box of dango at her face to shut her up, but she caught it, "What's this?"

A smile wormed its way onto my usually stoic face, "A congratulations on passing the test."

Any semblance of rage that was once on her face fell away as she opened the box, "O-oh, thanks then, I guess."

Closing my eyes again, I leaned my head back, "Let me know when you have my gift ready."

"W-wait what! I have to give you a gift now!" She spluttered.

"It's only common courtesy Anko."

She huffed, "Did Hayate give you a gift?"

I opened one of my eyes, "Nope, but I didn't get him one, so he's not obligated."

Puffing up her cheeks, she glared at me. Eventually, she let out a defeated sigh, "Alright, I'll get you a gift at some point, but right now, Orochimaru wants to see us."

Tilting my head, my eyes widened ever so slightly, while Hayate paused to look to Anko.

"Do we go now?"

She crossed her arms, "Well, not right now, but in a few hours."

I leaned back in my seat, "Then we can go then," I pat a seat at the table, "Why don't you sit with us?"

As she usually did whenever I talked, she huffed but took her seat at the table.

Hayate stood up, evidently finished with his bowl, "I just remembered, my dad wanted me home early for training, sorry guys."

 _You choose now to leave? Right when she gets here? …traitor…_

I waved to him as he left, Anko settling with a muffled bye.

Propping my head back up, I closed my eyes.

 _Maybe I can get some shuteye before we go?_

However, my attempted nap was interrupted by Anko pushing my arm out from beneath me.

 _SHI-._

My thought was cut off by the thud my forehead made on contact with the table. I left my head down, "Yes Anko?"

"Get up you sloth!"

I brought my head up to look her in the eye, "Well ouch, that almost hurt my feelings."

She simply glared at me, "We need to talk."

For the _third_ time I propped my head up while maintaining eye contact, "And what would you like to talk about?"

She looked away, "I, uh, I appreciate the help you gave me. It means a lot."

 _Now she's all adorable 'n shit. Of course... did I just call her adorable?_

Tilting my head, I looked at her inquisitively, "For what? The leaning thing? Don't worry about it, you and Hayate are my only friends really, so it's a given that I'd help you, you're important to me."

Lighting up red, she squirmed in her seat, "Uhhhmm."

I smirked, "Although to be honest, the main reason was that losing a teammate so early on would've been annoying to deal with."

Immediately her embarrassment turned to anger, and she lunged over the table for my throat. Leaning back, I accepted my fate.

 _That's more like it._

* * *

"If what I've been told is true, then you two showed great promise in your respective fields."

All of us were in his room if you could call it that, it looked more like a personal lab to me.

He turned to Anko with a slightly disappointed look, "However, due to Anko's eagerness, she didn't get to properly exercise her skills. Is that correct?"

She flinched at his gaze but nodded.

"I see," he placed a hand to his chin, "I suppose that means extra training for you Anko."

Anko Looked at the floor meekly, "Yes Orochimaru."

His look morphed to an almost excited appraisal, "On the other hand, Hayate and Ton seemed exceptional in their skills. Hayate, your kenjutsu is already extremely refined, and to fight off one of my larger serpents is no easy feat; Ton, the prowess in your genjutsu skills is already easily high chunin level, I don't know how you train, but keep it up and you might just reach your goal."

 _That's probably the result of years of playing with the sanity of Konoha's civilians and low chunin guards._

I let a small grin on my face, "Thank you Orochimaru."

Hayate parroted me with a slight stutter, "Y-yes, thank you."

His smirk died down to a small smile, that seemed almost looked proud, "I've brought you all here to let you know that you've passed and that I'm looking forward to teaching you all."

He put his hand on Anko's shoulder, "Especially you, Anko."

 _Favoritism much? Probably should've expected this, with him being her tutor for two years._

Anko brightened, standing up straighter.

Orochimaru stepped back, turning his attention to some documents on a table behind him, "You all are free to go home for today, dismissed."

* * *

I was on my way home, taking the scenic route over the old apartment flats roofs, the cicadas buzz soothing me as I walked. No people around to ruin this rare moment of respite from people's trivial discussions, no people to distract me from my own thoughts, no one-.

" _Hey! What're you doin' up there!"_

 _I keep forgetting the damn rule…_

Peeking over the edge of the roof, I was met with the sight of boy about my age, maybe slightly older with a blue coat with orange highlights, goggles hanging around his neck.

My fingers twitched.

 _Might as well._

Standing up, I casually walked down the edge of the building. He seemed a bit on edge at my silence, "W-why aren't you answering?"

I deadpanned, "My social battery is sort of fucked right now, so it's hard to hold a conversation. Sorry if I seem rude."

He relaxed at that, rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish smile, "Man, you kinda had me going for a minute, with the roof watching thing you were doin'."

Shrugging, I put my hands in my pocket.

 _Huh, I wonder if I can swipe something of his…_

An awkward silence followed before he shifted uncomfortably, "So, uh, my name's Obito Uchiha! What's yours?"

I cast a quick genjutsu on him, "My names Ton'neru Iburi, weren't you that kid in the academy that was always yelling about becoming Hokage and surpassing someone named Kakashi?"

Chuckling sheepishly, the newly dubbed Obito rubbed the back of his head again, "Y-yeah, that's me. And those things are definitely gonna happen!"

Strolling up to his side, he continued staring at where I was, holding a conversation with 'me'. My fingers rose to his head, deftly untying his headband, and catching it as it fell from his forehead. Luckily for me, I accounted for the sensation of his headband in the genjutsu.

Releasing the illusion, I leaned on his shoulder, my arm draped over his shoulders, "Nice headband."

Immediately he jumped back, a scared look on his face, "W-WHAT THE-," He cut himself off before he woke up all his neighbors. Placing a hand to his chest, he heaved, "How did you do- never mind, just, can I get my headband back. Please?"

Smirking, I threw it to him, "Well you're definitely not boring," Placing my hands in my pockets quickly, I looked him in the eye, "Feel free to come over if you see me anywhere, you seem fun to talk with."

He looked back at me confused, "Al-alright, sure Ton'neru." Turning away from me, he strolled off, mumbling about how crazy I was.

 _Well, I don't really want this, sooo…_

"Hey! Obito!"

Pivoting back towards me, he seemed frustrated, "Yeah?"

I pulled one of my hands out of its pocket, throwing him something, "Catch."

True to his ninja training, he caught it mid-air, inspecting it, his eyes widening before he started to feel his face, "You nabbed my goggles too!"

Smirking once more, I turned to lamp-lit streets of Konoha, waving behind me, "Stay safe Obito."


	9. Chapter 8

"Weeding?"

For once, Orochimaru didn't have his trademark smirk on his face, a disappointed look in its stead, "Sadly, outside of training, I'm only allowed to give you D-ranks, believe me, I'm just as bored."

I looked up to the sky, taking a deep breath in, focusing on the clouds dotted across it.

 _That's fine._

Orochimaru's brow rose, "Care to tell me what that was?"

Deadpanning at the mission log with a blank look, my mouth twitched, "It's an exercise I was shown with my old teacher to not exude too much killing intent."

His brow furrowed, more confused, "And why is that an issue?"

I shrugged, "Something about scarring allies? I can't really remember."

Anko and Hayate shuddered, while Orochimaru paused, analyzing me.

 _Not off-putting at all…_

"I see," he crossed his arms, "We'll have to look into that."

 _Oddly serious of him._

Anko took a step back as if I would snap at her, "Sure, but could you do that, _anywhere_ else but near me?"

"I second that," Hayate mimicking Anko's recoil.

Rolling my eyes, my mouth twitched once more, "Calm down you two, I'm not a ticking time bomb or anything."

They both took another step back, "Mmhmm…"

Sighing, I turned to Orochimaru, massaging my temples to ease my growing headache, "So in other words, we'll be doing chores for the elderly?"

He nodded.

I stared at the man, my face a blank slate except for pursed lips and tired eyes. Looking up exasperatedly, I relented, "Might as well get it over with."

* * *

"Do either of you mind telling me why Orochimaru isn't at least supervising us?"

We were on someone's porch, crouched into their garden. Anko glared back at me, "Orochimaru obviously has more important things to do than babysit us," she looked up with a smirk similar to the man's, "and plus, it could also be a sign that he trusts us."

Blanching, I met her glare with the most condescending look I could muster, "Because I'm sure he isn't just off in his lab studying his experiments."

She huffed, going back to pulling at the ground.

I shook my head.

 _Alright… back to busywork._

My eyes rose up to my teammates, hands mindlessly roaming the ground for weeds. Gazing at Hayate.

… _Might as well…_

* * *

~Hayate's POV~

 _These two need to cool it, kami. Why am I always the peacekeeper? …I swear I'm too nice sometimes._

Shifting myself up to balance the sword on my back, I glanced at Ton. He was focused in on his task, and surprisingly, so was Anko. Although, she was doing it in an overtly promiscuous stance, so I peered at the ground to hide the redness of my face.

 _Thank kami._

Letting out a breath in my head, I leaned forward to continue, a relieved smile on my face, the blush receding. I already had the stress of my parents and my personal training, so this is a _very_ welcome change. A much-appreciated silence, save for the wind, began, reigning over our work. Ton stood up wiping the sweat from his brow; he pulled a bandana out of his back pocket, tying it over his forehead.

 _That's new… at least he had good taste..._

We worked quietly, my hands sifting through the soil for the pesky parasitic cause of the mission. A soft ching brought my attention up from the ground to…Ton?

 _Is that a scabbard?_

A cool breeze ran through my hair. My eyes widening, I reached up feeling for my bandana-band, realization adorning my features.

"Oh sonuva bi-."

* * *

~Ton'neru's POV~

"Language."

Pointing Hayate's sheathed sword at him, I smirked, "Come on Hayate, you must have expected this at least once."

He glowered at me, snatching the blade out of my hand, "Well I was hoping that since we were, y'know," He gestured to the garden, "On a mission, you'd drop it for once."

I rolled my eyes, "We are _weeding_. You think this is actually entertaining?"

Anko stood, a skeptical look on her face, "Missions aren't supposed to be fun. No matter how much this sucks, we have to do it."

My mouth twitched, and I glanced to her, "You're speaking up about this? Really?"

She rose her hands in mock surrender, Hayate cutting in, "Cool it, Ton."

Sighing, I slouched, "Sorry, it's just, just so boring. I can feel my very being _dissolving away._ "

Hayate rose a brow, "Alright, isn't that a bit dramatic?"

My face grew cold as I stared at him, "No."

He leaned back, an inquisitive look on his face, "Really?"

I kept staring.

"Oka-a-ay then…," He backpedaled, crouching into the small brush.

Anko huffed from the side, "Can you at least help us finish it faster?"

Grimacing, I shot a look over to her, "Fine."

 _I suppose I am being childish._

Once again, I found myself on one knee in an elderly lady's garden with the sun high in the sky, and my only respite the tranquil buzz of cicadas. I glanced at the trees, seeing the little bugs playing their song in chorus.

 _I suppose its mating season then. At least for these few._

I sighed, a soft, almost imperceptible smile on face.

 _Might as well get back to work._

* * *

We were released early, apparently, Orochimaru had some experiments he just _had_ to do in the middle of the day. Not like I wanted to be trained or anything, that'd be too much to ask from my teacher of all people.

I mindlessly walked throughout the streets, my eyes searching through the crowds and buildings for something interesting.

 _The usual I suppose. Pretty much nothing to do that I haven't done before. Maybe I could screw with Hayate?_

Thinking back to everything we did today, I paled.

 _That'll definitely end with me on a fucking kebab. Still not as scary as Anko though._

My ears caught the telltale sounds of cicadas.

 _Damn, I can still hear them? Well, I'm not going to complain._

Turning the corner, I spotted a ramen stand with a few people eating. My stomach sang the song of its people. Looking around to make sure no-one heard, I sighed.

 _Ichiraku's huh? Might as well I suppose._

A chill ran down my spine, and a pressure built around me, constrictive like I was stuck in a vice grip tightening. I glanced back to a building behind me, my face hardened. Nothing met my gaze as I surveyed the rooftops, the feeling dissipating shortly after. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

 _Odd…_

I shook my head to clear up my thoughts, food, yes, that's what I was doing. My feet carried me into the small shop, right to an empty seat up front, a man behind the counter, "Hey."

He turned, a warm smile on his face, "Yes, what can I do for you?"

Reciprocating his smile, I rested my head on my hand, "I've never been here, so just surprise with whatever. I can pay."

He nodded, turning to serve someone else. My smile fell the second he looked way, disinterest taking its place.

"Ton'neru! You eat here?"

Confused, I swiveled towards the voice, Obito meeting my look. He seemed to be in a group with three others, an apathetic-looking teen with silver hair that didn't make sense and a face mask, a bubbly girl with purple cheek marks, and an adult with blonde hair and soft blue eyes, he actually looks familiar…

I closed my eyes, "Not usually, but I'm hungry, so I don't really care."

His smile faltered slightly, the girl leaning around to see me, "Ohhh, who is this Obito?"

"He's the guy I told you about, y'know, the one who stole my headband."

Bringing a hand up, I cut in, "Don't forget about your goggles."

The girl covered her mouth, giggling, and Obito spluttered, his face growing red, unsure of what to say, "Hey! I-uh, jus- uhm, you cheated!"

I smirked, "How? We weren't playing or anything?"

He crossed his arms indignantly, huffing.

The man laughed, looking down to Obito, "Well why don't you introduce your friend Obito?"

Glancing over to me, he sighed, "Yeah, sure," He brought up a hand as if presenting something, "Meet Ton'neru, uh…Ibooli?"

 _Yeeeaaaah, that warrants a theft._

I winced for him, an annoyed look on my face, "Iburi, ouch, I thought I was at least a _little_ memorable."

He turned away, ignoring my comment. As he glared off at a wall, I finished a quick genjutsu, not unlike the first one I threw his way when we first met.

Still smiling, the man rubbed the back of his head, "I'm Minato, these three's jonin instructor," He placed a hand on the dead looking guy next to him, "This is Kakashi, and the girl giggling is Rin."

The newly dubbed Kakashi spared a look in my direction before turning back to his food, a look of complete and utter disinterest on what portion of his face was visible…Am I like that?

Rin only nodded a bright smile on her face, "And Obito is just being 'tough' right now. So don't worry about it, alright?"

Shrugging, I leaned back while closing my eyes, "I wasn't."

Minato turned to face me, looking over Obito, "Are you training to become a ninja?"

I brought my glove up, the symbol of the leaf engraved into it, "Yep, my teacher is just slacking off doing other things instead of doing what he's supposed to." Because he's just that _great_ at his one job.

He scratched his cheek, "Well that's not the best situation to be in."

I shrugged again, "It's whatever, I mean, really I've still only been training myself. Outside of one jutsu…," My eyes lit up as I trailed off, "Hey, mind if I tag along for the rest of the day?"

Immediately, Obito spun towards me, yelling, "There's no way you're coming!"

"Sure, I don't mind."

At that, Obito jumped out of his seat, stamping his foot against the ground, "WHAT?!"

Ichiraku's grew silent after that, its patrons all staring at the young Uchiha. He shrunk into himself, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "Heh..heh."

My mouth twitched as I held back a smirk. Minato waved to everyone to continue eating, casting a look at Obito, "It would be a refreshing change don't you think? Plus, he's already a genin like you guys, maybe he'll bring something new?"

He placed his hands on his hips, leering at me, "I guess…"

Rin stood up from her seat, "Also, someone new to train with would be pretty fun right?"

At an inhuman speed, Obito's entire demeanor changed from a standoff-ish and irritated teen to a blubbering mess, a pink coat dusting his cheeks, "Y-yeah, of course, it would Rin."

The server finally came back with a bowl of ramen, hot and ready for dining.

 _Right when I was about leave too…_

I leaned over the counter as the man went off, "Could I get this to-go?"

He nodded. "Thank you, sir."

After I got my box of ramen, I hopped off my seat, finding myself about an inch taller than everyone except Minato. Huh, the more you know.

Bringing up a finger to my lips to let them know to be quiet, I casually stalked my way up Obito's face, untying his headband for a second time, hanging it in front of his face for a few seconds. Kakashi actually looked up from his bowl, his eyes widening a small bit, meanwhile, Rin attempted to stifle her laughter, a futile endeavor and Minato settled with a small smile on his face.

 _What to do… just giving it to him would be too boring. Oh! Why don't you tie it to him?_

Ignoring the fact that I was talking to myself, I adhered to my inner voices advice, quickly tying the headband around his left arm. I chortled on the inside, my eyes locking onto his goggles.

 _Should I? …Definitely should._

Shortly after, I was wearing a pair of goggles with orange lens. I walked up to Minato, a blank look on my face, "So when do we leave?"

Surprisingly, after Minato got verbally assaulted and very nearly maimed by a woman with bright red hair, we made our way to their training ground, number three I think, I wasn't paying attention, sue me.

As I expected, Obito still hadn't realized he was in my genjutsu, so I still had his goggles wrapped snugly around my eyes.

 _These are surprisingly comfortable for their coloring._

My thought was cut off as Minato flicked his wrist to the side, an oddly shaped kunai blurring past my vision into the tree line.

I blinked.

"So," I put my hands in my pockets, "What was that?"

He only smiled, "Just a set up for training, nothing to worry about."

 _Mmhmm._

I peered to the side at Obito's team, Rin rolling on her heels, Obito glaring at Kakashi and Kakashi succinctly ignoring his existence. Hmm.

My face blanked, "Alright." I'm not about to argue with a jonin, even if Minato seems nice.

Kakashi stepped forward, his tired gaze only sparing time for his teacher, "What will we be doing today teacher?"

Minato bent over to reach Kakashi's height, a slightly hardened look on his face, "Just call me Minato alright?"

Although stiffly, Kakashi nodded.

With a smile, Minato stood up, gesturing to the field surrounding us, "Even though we have an extra person, our plans haven't changed," He placed his hands on his hips, "We will be simulating a bodyguard mission."

My brow rose. Really? Bodyguarding?

Obito seemed to share my sentiment, recoiling with a sour look on his face, "But why though? I mean, I get that we haven't done one yet, but why do we have to? It sounds so boring!"

 _Stated like a champion Obito, a champion._

Minato waved his hand dismissively, "It's what we have planned, and our little friend here can help with it."

I leered at the man, "I'm only younger by one year."

He ignored me. Awesome.

Sighing, I placed a hand on my hip, "So what am I doing?" Might as well get it out of the way.

His face hardened, "You'll be the client that needs to be protected. Kakashi will be protecting you while Obito and Rin try to reach you," He turned to my three seniors, "To be considered a success you only have to reach Ton'neru here and touch him, as in a real scenario, that would be the end."

Unsurprisingly, Obito and Rin nodded once in unison.

Turning to Kakashi, Minato placed a hand on his shoulder, smiling, "Your job is self-explanatory. Simply keep them from reaching Ton'neru, I'll give you a scroll with your destination on it, alright?"

Kakashi nodded uniformly, quickly walking to my side. I crossed my arms, plotting ways to sabotage the practice _._

 _I could attempt a genjutsu on Kakashi and just watch how that goes. But I don't know his skill level, although I think I remember him being a prodigy… I'll try it later, but for now…_

I glanced at my other two seniors.

 _Yep. Game plan secured._

I stretched, placing my hands behind my back as I molded my chakra, "So, when do we start?"

The blonde stalked over to us, placing a hand on each of our shoulders, his smile becoming softer. Almost… innocent.

 _Shit._

"Now."

My surroundings changed, pretty much instantly. Instead of the field, I found myself next to Kakashi in the forest, far from the edge of the woods, the odd kunai I saw beforehand lodged in a tree trunk behind us. Minato wasn't anywhere in sight, at least anywhere I could see. I sighed, at least it isn't like the shunshin.

Glancing over at Kakashi, I noticed a small scroll in his hands, I wonder when he got that? "Welp,"

I placed my hands on my hips, "Where are we going?"

He ignored me, settling for unrolling the scroll, his eyes darting across the paper.

I blanched, "Bud?"

"The stumps."

 _Stumps?_

Right after that, he just pivoted and started walking off in some random direction. I took a deep breath, looking through the treetops at what little of the sky I could see, drowning out my surroundings with the buzz in my head.

 _This is perfectly-._

"Come on," Kakashi grabbed my shoulder, leading me forward through the brush at an annoyingly quick pace.

My mouth twitched, an almost unnoticeable manic grin on my face.

 _ **Fine.**_

I delved into the inner machinations of my mind, my grin only growing as I trailed behind Kakashi.

 _ **Good luck my angsty teenage friend. Good luck.**_

* * *

~1 hour later~ 3rd person POV

Minato continued watching the Stumps in the center of the field, a disconcerted look plastered on his face. He expected at least something to happen by half an hour, especially with Obito's progress and Kakashi's innate talent, but now he wondered if something had gone wrong. His thoughts went back to Ton'neru. Could he be the cause? What was his skillset again? Of course, he had that weird KI he showed in his academy days, and his clan's smoke technique, but what else?

" **TON'NERU!"**

Obito sprinted into the clearing, his face noticeably scratched up from the branches in the forest, but even more prevalent was the lack of both his headband and goggles. Rin appearing shortly after, only looking confused.

"Wait, Obito-."

Obito spun his head around madly, searching for the silver-haired teen, "WHERE ARE YOU?!"

Soon after, Kakashi calmly stalked out of the forest behind Obito, sneaking past the boy's sights to the Stumps, miming the actions of leading someone onto the top of the middle stump. He turned in Minato's direction, shunshining toward the man and landing on a tree branch next to him, "Mission accomplished sir."

Minato looked dumbfounded, glancing from Kakashi to the empty stump in the middle of the clearing and glancing back.

"Uh…Kakashi?"

The boy looked up to him, his eyes open in interest for once, "Yes Minato?"

He took one last glance at the log, seeing nothing but the woods behind it, "Where's Ton'neru?"

Kakashi paused, his face blanking before he looked over his shoulder at the log. His eyes slowly widened as he recoiled backward, almost falling off the tree, "W-what?"

Minato glanced back to the field, eyeing Obito and Rin, the former had at least calmed down a bit, while Rin healed his scratches, a tired look in her eyes. Minato rubbed his face, sighing, "What am I missing?"

He thought back to what he knew about the boy. From a newly introduced clan to Konoha with the ability to transform into smoke, an event in the academy where he released an abnormally high amount of Killing intent, and his tendency to steal from many in Konoha without them knowing what he looks like… Oh.

He took a breath, letting a small smile on his face as he turned to Kakashi, the teen looking around confused. He placed a hand on his shoulder, "Release."

Immediately, Kakashi shook his head clear, an uncomfortable feeling rubbing at his back. He reached back, pulling out a small scrap of parchment with a note scrawled on it, as well as Obito's gear.

 **I got bored after screwing with you 3 after 20 minutes. Decided to go exploring in the forest for something to entertain me, might be back later, who knows.**

 **-Ton'neru**

Kakashi kept staring down, his hair covering his eyes, clenching the note between his fingers, meanwhile, Minato rubbed his temples thinking to himself.

 _Genjutsu. Of course, it's genjutsu. But how does a practically fresh genin have such skill to trick not only Obito and Rin but Kakashi as well? WITH an age gap?_

He turned to peer through the forest, his trained eyes picking out all the details he could find. He let another sigh out, a small frown on his face. Something felt off.

* * *

~Ton'neru's POV~

The crunch of fallen leaves beneath my feet was all I could hear as I ambled throughout what little of the forest I could traverse, the sun now lower on the horizon.

 _I probably don't have much time before they come to find me._

My eyes drifted around the landscape before me, lazily pointing out details I could use for a later time if there ever was one. The chirping of birds had stopped long ago, the green around me growing silent, however I wasn't worried, of the known creatures that call these woods their home, only two were worth worrying about, and if I somehow died because of a fluorescent red and blue frog the size of my thumb, then I'm fairly sure I deserved it.

Slowly as I trailed through, a faint buzz permeated the silence, drawing my attention.

 _Even here?_

As I stalked off towards the sounds, I could definitely confirm that I was hearing the cicadas reverberating song. I thought they would be done by now…

The sound continued to become louder, edging on painful to my poor eardrums. My face became a stone mask as I went around a particularly large tree, maybe a meter or more in diameter when I saw it.

A small, feeble tree with black leaves. It's trunk a sickly grey, barely sturdy enough to support the few branches it had. However, that wasn't what left me confused.

The buzzing was coming from _underneath_ the tree.

 _Don't cicadas only sing their song when they're looking for a mate?_ _ **Above**_ _ground?_

The ceaseless buzz had grown to a white noise by the time I had crouched down to the trees visible roots, skeletal in nature, however, a string of markings I couldn't decipher was barely visible on its brittle bark. My hand gently brushed along its surface, feeling no indentations, nor any signs of a man-made tool being used.

 _Is this… a seal?_

A grin stuck itself on my face as I studied the markings. They didn't seem to match any type of seal documented beforehand, even the more archaic ones from the warring states period, but the markings did _resemble_ a seal, so much so that it should be impossible for this to be natural.

I paused.

 _If this_ _ **is**_ _an unknown seal, should I really be playing with it?_

The 'seal' seemed to have some sort of attraction to my hand, as whenever my palm grew close enough, I could feel my fingers getting pulled to the dry bark.

 _On one hand, this is a possibly dangerous unknown seal with an unknown purpose, there is no reason I should attempt to do anything besides report it._

I bit my lip.

 _But on the other, it would be rather amazing to understand it, possibly even use it to some capacity if I knew what it did._

My wills fought, arguing about common sense over curiosity and vice versa, and I stared, my fingers transforming into smoke and reverting constantly.

 _Might as well…_

I grazed the bark once again with my gauze covered fingertips, channeling chakra into the markings. At first, nothing changed except for the steady drain of chakra from my hand, the forest growing quiet once again, the buzz almost melting away. I scrunched my face in disappointment.

 _Well, that was anti-climactic._

No sooner than right after I thought that, the buzz returned in full, it's intense waves causing me to become disoriented as the buzz seemed to be in my head now. From the corner of my bleary sight I could make out a blur of silver, but the pressure only built, and built, and built in my skull, until…

 _ **POOF**_

And my world faded into nothingness.

* * *

 **A/N:** To start off, I apologize, I made a promise I couldn't keep as I didn't think about the upcoming school year before formatting my schedule, and I've probably annoyed or disappointed you guys, and for that, I'm truly sorry. Now, with that out of the way, I've decided that the new schedule is _at least_ one chapter a month. I know it's slow, but with school and the like… ah, I'm sure you've heard all this before. Anyway, feel free to leave a review pointing out any typos or mistakes in the writing, or with any criticism you believe is valid. Hopefully, you enjoyed this (Criminally overdue) chapter, and I hope to see you in the next chapter.


	10. Chapter 9

Alright, I can remember _a lot_ of weird stuff I've experienced in my life, that one drunken shinobi we met on our trip that tried to hit on my mother, Orochimaru's horrifically intriguing experiments, the Aburame's uniquely uncanny ability, and even some of the heaviest Killing intent I've ever felt. From Orochimaru of course.

 _But this?_

I stared up at the gargantuan insect above me, easily the size of a small house. A threatening buzz dominating everything else.

 _This has got to be the weirdest._

Maintaining eye contact with the massive cicadas red-orange compound eyes, my reflection distorted in its sight. I slowly brought myself up from the ground onto my feet, the buzz increasing in volume as I did so. My eyes drew themselves against its chitin, wings twitching on its back.

 _How am I supposed to deal with this?_

I raised my hands in surrender, my mouth twitching in anticipation. My surroundings coming into focus around me as adrenaline pumped through my veins. It seemed I was in a cavern of some sort, a system of tunnels maybe? Monstrously large roots were carved into the walls, _meters_ in diameter. A few smaller ones lined the floor beneath me.

 _Am I underground?_

It leaned forward, only a meter away now. I could feel the buzz in my chest.

 _Genjutsu maybe? It is rather large… maybe it's able to be affected? Hopeful thinking…_

It's rostrum, essentially its mouth was much more intimidating at this size, much sharper and wider than any blade I've seen. Even more so when it rose to point at me.

My breath hitched, it's powerful buzz the only sound in the room

" _What are you doing here human?"_

I balked.

 _Did it just talk? Yes, yes it did, did you not just hear it?_

Shaking my head, my gaze rose from it's tube-like mouth to its eyes, might as well be polite, "What?"

It bristled at that, the buzz becoming more intense for a moment, " _I asked you why you are here human, in the Caverns of Song?"_

Its scratchy voice was partially obscured, hidden beneath the incessant droning emanating from its body.

 _Rather dramatic isn't it?_

I rubbed the back of my neck, still tense, "I don't really know, I was only exploring the forest."

Scuttling backward, the creature seemed to hum in thought, although to me it only sounded like nails to a chalkboard. Kami, what the fuck did I get myself into?

" _I see. However, if what you say is true, then you must follow me."_

Letting myself go off guard, I stared, befuddled, "I just pumped some chakra into the seal on the tree's roots…"

The giant insect turned extremely quickly, a small gust of wind blowing past me. I tensed, getting ready to stabilize myself, but my body didn't transform. Convenient.

" _Follow."_

I let out a breath, my eyes following the cicada's receding form, it's trailing surprisingly light.

 _What's going on today?_

* * *

It turned out that the cicada had a name. Furu. So that's good. From what I've gathered, I had stumbled upon the direct entry point to a summons home, haven, whatever it was. Although I have studied summons before, actually _finding_ a natural location is practically unheard of, spare a few stories of toads.

As Furu was leading me through the seemingly never-ending hollows of the cavern, smaller cicadas crawled along the roots, some moving what seemed like supplies, their heads bowed, and others drinking directly from the roots.

Still tense, I glanced up at Furu, my hands in my pockets, "You still haven't told me where we're going."

He peered back to me, not saying anything before going back to his steady pace, staring forward. Great. At least the caves give me some unfamiliar sense of safety, although I don't know _why._ They just _do._

The wood seemed to somehow grow even wider as the little pathways and cubbies disappearing along with our trip, the cave system becoming an organic hallway crafted from four colossal roots ingrained together, leading the two of us into what could only be described as a completely natural cathedral. What seemed like makeshift candles formed out of an odd sap littered throughout, many pews lining the room, even what looked like regal cicadas colored dark grey with white eyes, almost as large as Furu guarded the entry point, letting Furu cross with no question, begrudgingly letting me through behind him.

I noticed the deafening buzz in the air, their conglomerated efforts keeping me from hearing my own thoughts, an oddly comforting luxury. What confused me was that my ears weren't in pain, perhaps it was because they're summons, or maybe natural energy, I do not know.

Standing in the front center of the room, what I could only describe as a wooden monolith formed from the tail end of one of the rootstocks.

The rows of pews were filled with cicadas varying in size and color, singing their song towards the monument. No…

With the monument.

I could hear the majority of the noise coming from its head, and yet I could not see what was on top of it.

Furu made an odd low-pitched noise, causing the room to become quiet. Now the only sound was my breathing and the occasional scratch at the ground from the congregation. He stepped forward, his own buzz going on in the background, " _Everyone,"_ He fluttered over to the side, his massive size unblocking my view, " _We have a candidate for the position of Saint."_

 _Saint? Well bud, do I have some news for you…_

Immediately, the room filled with their song once more, however, I couldn't evince their true feelings on the matter. What does he mean by Saint? Why are they all in a giant cathedral? What's on top of that _damn_ monolith!?

Furu escorted me through the crowd towards the wooden centerpiece, a cold feeling creeping down my spine, the group quieting once more. My mouth twitched.

 _Where the hell is he bringing me to?_

We reached the monument. Its size becoming even more apparent than it already was. The room began to grow slightly darker; I turned around, a large set of dark green and brown curtains fashioned from leaves closed behind us, blocking off the rest of them and leaving Furu, who, or whatever was on top of the monolith, and myself.

 _Guess I'm dead._

Tensing up, I stood as still as stone, my gaze left unblinking at the top of the root. A shuffling sound coming from what I couldn't see.

"It seems you already understand your role, young one," A rough voice cut through the silence, no buzz present.

A pale white cicada with vibrant blue eyes dropped from the top of its pedestal, almost the size of my hand. It landed at my feet. It craned it's head up at me, it's cobalt blue eyes somehow conveying an unearthly wisdom and understanding, "You've already met Furu, respectable, isn't she?"

 _So Furu's a she then? Huh. Alright. Screw it._

Nodding, I crouched down to the pale cicada, my face set as I offered a finger, "I'm Ton'neru Iburi, it's nice to meet you, and if you don't mind, I have _quite_ a few questions." I give up on making sense of this, no matter how interesting. Giant insects, unusual roots that could not feasibly exist anywhere in Konoha. Oh well, maybe they'll be able to teach me something for my time.

The cicada let out it's equivalent to a hearty laugh, although it sounded high pitched to me, "Wonderful! Even now you remain calm. Absolutely wonderful!" He let the last vestiges of his amusements go, appearing before my eyes faster than I could see, he hovered, "I am Bazu, the Bishop of the Cicadas. You need not worry my Saint, your questions shall be answered in due time." I froze, how did he move that quickly? He landed on the top of my arm, beckoning me to outstretch my hand.

 _Ignoring the Saint comments, I'm not really in a power position right now, so I think I'll just..._

Bazu landed in the palm of my hand, his body only the size of a small brick. He nodded to Furu and a large scroll fell at my feet, unraveling into ancient papyrus with an unknown language written on it. A spot seemed to be laid out at the bottom for a signature of sorts, no other markings in sight. An ear ringing buzz ran through me as Bazu flittered off my hand next to the seal, "I apologize for the pain, but it was necessary," Glancing down to my hand, it was covered in blood, five holes, one in each of fingers and from, caused by Bazu's mouth. Although, my gauze was absorbing it well.

 _Shit._

Taking a deep breath, I looked to the Bishop questioningly. He nodded his head to the scroll, "To sign our contract, one must do so in blood, as no other medium is as absolute."

 _Alright, I suppose they want a summoner. Are there any real downsides to this? Of course not, it's another avenue to explore!_

I pressed my hand into the seal, firmly imprinting my palms likeness into the parchment. Waiting a few moments, nothing happened. I shot an unimpressed look to the Bishop.

 _Absolute my ass._

He buzzed, seemingly laughing, "You must sing our song into the print before we accept you as our Saint young Ton'neru."

Staring at the smaller cicada, I shifted between him and the scroll. Of course, there was some prerequisite to getting a contract. How am I supposed to mimic their buzzing?

My gaze practically burned through the old paper as I mulled it over in my head. I pulled at my chakra, pulling it into thin strings similar to a harp, vibrating them at different frequencies, yet all I managed to get was something akin to Tinnitus.

 _Damn._

My eyes screwed in concentration as I pulled the chakra even more narrow, redoubling my efforts, vibrating again at more extreme levels. Still, I only managed to make my ears bleed, unlike the soothing feeling their song usually had. Letting go of the chakra, I peered back at Furu who was buzzing absentmindedly, watching. Listening as closely as I could, my ears led me to look at her side, a relatively small rounded triangle of ridged muscle covered in chitin was its origin. I stared.

 _Kami, cicadas and their fancy organs, how did I forget their tymbals, the_ _ **entire**_ _thing that makes the damn song…_

Taking my chakra for the third time, I pulled my chakra as thin as humanly possible, attenuated to the highest degree. Step one done. My focus completely on my chakra, my eyes closed as I layered the chakra in on itself, copying the pattern of muscles as accurately as I could do myself, forming a pseudo-tymbal, each ridge smaller than the last. Step two done. Now all I need to do is vibrate it as fast as I can. Easy.

Sweat fell off my chin as I willed my chakra to grind against itself, a sound similar to the Cicada's song. Finally! I pushed for more friction, bringing the noise to the point of deafening me to anything else. _Almost there.._.

My focus broke, the artificial tymbal falling apart just as the buzz found its peak. I let out a few tired breaths, my short clean-cut hair wet with sweat, my bandages damp as well. I stared at the contract, my bloody hand print glowing a light grey before setting in, the glow fading with time. The scroll puffed away, leaving me before the two cicadas, a reluctantly satsified expression on my face. I feel as if I just sold my soul to the Shinigami, no matter how much this setting opposes that.

Bazu let out a hum of contentment that resonated in my chest, "Perfect," He shuffled away towards a back room, possibly his personal quarters if the size of the door means anything, "Come, we have much to discuss."

Only nodding, I trailed Bazu to the small door, barely large enough for the more moderately sized cicadas to fit through. I got down on my hands and knees, pressing forward behind him. It was dark, depriving me of at least two of my senses as the smell of old silt overpowered everything else. An excruciatingly bright light was all that could be made out, Bazu's chitin faintly shining in the tunnel, "With haste my Saint, with haste!"

 _I'm hurrying alright? Kami…_

Reaching the light at the end of the tunnel, I dragged my self out of into what looked like a… valley? There were large but not monstrous roots that were burrowed into the sides of the crevasse, and abnormally huge blades of grass the size of trees, their vibrant green contrasting with the vast purple sky.

 _Beautiful. In a bizarre way, but still beautiful._

Pausing, I thought of the connotations of my situation. I am a shinobi. A clan shinobi. A genin on a team of other ninjas, headed by one of the strongest shinobi in the village, and someone, probably Kakashi based on the hair color noticed me get transported by the Cicada's, so it was extremely likely that my sudden disappearance was reported a few hours ago based on the sky, and to add on one last thing to stress out the Hokage even more is that I'm the only ninja in the village that has the Iburi kekkei genkai, one of only _two_ in the entirety of the Land of Fire as far as I know.

 _Yeah, I am probably going to get a little more than a smack on the wrist, but hey, might as well try to stay optimistic._

I stretched, yawning at the sky, "Yeeeaah. I have to go. Soon preferably, would you mind if we could re convene at a later date?"

Bazu appeared on my shoulder. I'm going to have to get used to that, aren't I?

"Of course my Saint. To leave all you have to do is use the summoning technique to leave and return. And obviously."

"Sounds good," I turned to perform the technique. Man, this has been one rollercoaster of a day. A thought brought me pause.

 _I don't know that technique, do I? Nope._

I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck, "Could you show me the Summoning technique?"

His high-pitched laugh was my only response.

* * *

~1 hours later~ 3rd person POV

The sun long gone beneath the horizon, a small group of shinobi stalked through the woods, seven in total. Minato and Orochimaru headed the search with their respective team's following behind, combing through whatever they could.

Orochimaru sneered at the blonde, "How did you and your team manage to make one of _my_ students disappear within only hours of meeting the boy anyway?"

Minato's eyes sharpened as he glared at the Sannin, "My team did not get rid of Ton'neru Orochimaru. And we don't _know_ what happened to him, but from what Kakashi told me, he seemed to have been reverse summoned."

The pale man rolled his eyes, looking ahead, "Very likely."

Obito, now with his goggles and headband, sifted through the forest, his eyes squinted frustratedly as he searched. He had been annoyed with him, but he only wanted his stuff back, not for him to just poof out of existence. Although, the thought had crossed his mind. He whirled his head over to Kakashi, "Have you found anything yet Kakashi?"

Much to his chagrin, the silver-haired prodigy glanced back at him, an annoyed look on his face as he only shook his head. Meanwhile, Anko and Rin searched together, talking about their teammates, Rin whispering to her, "So, are you worried at all?"

Anko looked more annoyed than anything, rolling her eyes, "Not really, he's done some stupid stuff before, I wouldn't be surprised if he's at a library right now. Plus, he knows that I'll beat him senseless if he doesn't show up soon."

Rin giggled, "Sounds like Obito to me."

She peered at the Uchiha boy, then looked back to Rin, "They are _not_ similar in the slightest," Anko observed the boy making a face at Kakashi, his goggle standing out against the green of the woods, "Why does he wear those anyway?"

The purple cheeked girl put a finger to her chin, "Actually, now that you ask, I don't really know," she shrugged, turning to the violetette across from her, "How about Ton'neru? Why does he wear those bandages?"

Anko paled, faltering as she almost tripped, "Uh… well, sorta."

Rin gazed at her questioningly, awaiting an answer.

She sighed, "I don't know the specifics, but apparently they keep him safe somehow, I don't know how or why, but they do. Also," She shuddered, "If you ever think about pranking him, _never,_ take his bandages. Ever."

Rin went back to work, befuddled, "Whatever you say."

Thinking of the mummy boy's demonstration, Orochimaru smirked, thinking to himself.

Of course, his students would be highly skilled, he was training them after all. Hayate was easily the most well-trained genin in kenjutsu, Anko was already following in his footsteps by signing the snake contract, and Ton'neru's genjutsu was absurdly refined for his age.

Minato peered at Orochimaru's grin, unsettled. Probably gloating to himself no doubt. Shaking his head, he surveyed the surrounding wood, a soft ringing in the air.

 _ **POOF**_

* * *

~Ton'neru's POV~

 _Finally got it down. Cool._

As the smoke started to fade, I was greeted by the sight of both my own team and team 7 staring at me, a pregnant pause starting while Anko's face slowly morphed into anger.

 _Nope._

Throwing a genjutsu at her, and creating a mud clone, I side stepped her march, rubbing the back of my neck while tuning out her irate rant, "Terribly sorry about that."

Hayate facepalmed, taking a seat on a fallen tree, mumbling about being not being paid enough. Orochimaru crossed his arms, his annoyed gaze practically screaming, ' _Where have you been?'_ Minato seemed to have a similar sentiment, "Ton'neru…"

"Would you believe me if I told you that I found a summons domain?" Sighing, Orochimaru stepped forward, "Now is not the time to-."

Using some of the blood from the wounds I got from Bazu, I quickly summoned a small cicada, slightly larger than average.

He stared, cocking his head to the side as he studied the insect. It squirmed under his scrutiny, whispering to me with a frightful buzz, " _He's scary…can I go now?"_

Nodding, the little guy puffed back to the Caverns of Song safe and sound, "See? I even got a contract."

Orochimaru rubbed his chin, "That you did."

I smirked, "Does this mean I won't be punished?" He seemed to consider it, sparing me a cold look, "You will be given extra sparring with Anko for the next three days, however," A pressure grew around me, bringing my attention to his eyes, "If I have to lose any more time on my studies because of your faults, then I will not be as lenient."

"Understood." The pressure dissipated.

I looked back to Anko, seemingly hammer fisting my poor clone, maiming my bandaged face. A necessary sacrifice. And sadly, a precursor to our sparring sessions.. that I now had more of. Damn it.

I felt my mouth twitch as I turned to the rest of the impromptu search party, "Once again, sorry I accidentally brought you all out here. Except for Obito, he needs all the training he can get."

Kakashi coughed, seemingly hiding his snickering, while Obito's face heated up out of embarrassment, "NO I DON'T!"

My hands reached into my pockets as I peered at him, "Oh really?" I dangled his headband in front of his eyes.

"GGRAHH! HOW DO YOU KEEP DOING THAT!"

* * *

"So," Jak-Jak sat before me, her legs crossed and an _innocent_ smile on her face, "Care to tell me why ya took so long?"

 _Unprecedented consequences…_

I shuddered, transforming partially into smoke, "W-well, you see, I was bored and I-," She stood up, "Always bored aren't ya?"

I only nodded, sitting down. Any more words and I might go missing for a while…

She sighed, the sickly-sweet smile on her face replaced with a tired scowl, "Why didn't ya at least _tell_ me first before ya did whatever it was ya were doing?"

Rubbing the back of my neck, I glanced away, "Well, I didn't know if the opportunity would stay if I had to come all the way here first." And it would've been pretty rude to hold up the entirety of team 7 to talk to you first… easier to beg for forgiveness than permission.

She slowly rubbed her eyes, leaning back, "Just, jus… y'know ya make my hair grey right?"

My head bobbed.

"Alright," She turned away, stalking towards her personal bedroom, "I'm going ta' bed. Night."

 _Really? That's it?_

The last bit of her visage disappeared behind the doorframe, a calm silence taking over the living room, myself standing gobsmacked on the couch.

 _Alrighty then…_

I stood, taking a deep breath, reviewing my rollercoaster of a day in all of its fantastical glory. Giant religious cicadas that call me their Saint, Obito's eccentric _together_ with my own eccentric team, and even weirder, even more, bizarre and outlandish than anything I've done in my short time on this Earth.

 ** _Weeding._**

 _I'd say that's a good mix for today._

My eyes roamed to the window, the night sky free from stars, a blank canvas of indigo beyond any understanding, otherworldly in nature with the Moon an anchor to our mortal plane.

 _Stop trying so hard to be poetic._

Silently, I nodded along to my thoughts, agreeing wholeheartedly. The couch looked extremely comfortable right about now… fuck it.

I collapsed onto the mishmash of clouds I called a 'couch', placing a hand behind my head while biting my thumb, summoning a smaller cicada. They seemed excited, their voice even now still hidden behind a soft buzz, " _What can I do for you my Saint?"_

Closing my eyes, I mumbled, "Just," I yawned, "Just sing your song until I fall asleep please, try not to wake anyone else."

Their tiny head dipped, and the gentle buzz of their melody filled the air. A content smile wormed its way onto my face as my consciousness faded.

 _Perfect…_

* * *

~? POV~

The quarry seems to have gained a summoning contract. A surprising development, but nothing hazardous to the mission, at least not as of yet. Further study will be necessary… I stood, turning away from the building I stalked off into the night, my hair flowing behind me with no sound nor trail following my path.

* * *

 **A/N:** Welp, this is the result of a sudden burst of motivation as well as being one of the few things I've had planned since the beginning. Thank you, **Seeker of Immortality** for your reviews, and as I should've addressed in the prologue, I have tweaked with characters ages and events in the world for the story's plot. Furthermore, thank you **mem0** for your suggestion, I've been considering rewriting the prologue for a while now, and this reminded me. Thank you everyone else for your reviews, they are definitely invigorating and make me more confident. Hopefully, you enjoyed the chapter, and I hope I see you in the next chapter.


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